r 


REESE  LIBRARY 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 


Accession  No.^^ycZ  "6      .   CLns  No.    '^j*L^^\ 


THE  SUCCESSORS  OF  HOIIER 


THE 

SUCCESSORS  OF  HOMER 


W.  C.  LAWTON 


SENIOR  CLASSICAL  I'ROFKSSOU  IN  THE  ADliLrHI  COLLEGE,   BUOOKLIN 


NEW   YOEK 
THE     MACMILLAN     COMPANY 

1898 


7^  7^sr 


fA^D37 
{5% 


\\ 


CONTENTS. 


VAGK 

Prologce    ...              ...              ...              ...              ...  1 

I.    The  Epic  Cycle             ...            ...            ...  6 

II.    The  Wokks  and  Days          ...            ...            ...  41 

III.  The  Hesiodio  Theogony,  Shield  of  Hekacles, 

ETC.         ...             ...             ...             ...             ...  7(5 

IV.  The  Homeric  Hymns     ...            ...            ...  107 

V.    The  Homeric  Hymn  to  Apollo        ...           ...  125 

VI.    The  Homeric  Hymn  to  Demeter             ...  154 

VII.    Hexameter  in    the   Hands  of  the  Philoso- 

pheks    ^^     ..'             ..\  .     ,    ...            ...     ^  180 

Epilogue    ...            ...            ...            ...            ...  198 


THE   SUCCESSORS  OF  HOMER 


THE  SUCCESSOKS  OF  HOMER. 


PEOLOGUE. 

In  the  great  panorama  of  literature,  as  of  history, 
the  chief  landmarks,  the  brilliant  epochs,  stand 
cut  prominently  in  our  memory,  while  the  really 
unbroken  tablelands  or  chains  of  hills  between 
them  are  often  unduly  overlooked.  Even  the 
most  general  student  of  literature  will  hardly 
forget  that,  about  the  ninth  or  tenth  century  B.C., 
Homer — or  the  school  of  Homeric  poets — immor- 
talized in  splendid  epic  verse  that  age  of  Achaian 
princes,  which  was  even  then  passing  away.  Nor, 
again,  will  the  trio  of  supreme  tragic  poets,  who, 
in  the  fifth  century  B.C.,  so  glorified  their 
Athenian  mother-city,  ever  become  dim  figures 
to  the  student  of  letters.  But  it  is  important 
also    to    realize    that    those    were    not    merely 

B 


2        The  Successors  of  Homer. 

isolated  elevations.  Between  Homer  and  Aes- 
chylos  there  was  probably  not  a  single  decade, 
perhaps  not  a  year,  when  the  muse  of  Hellas 
was  silent.  Two  notable  series  of  poems,  in 
particular,  may  still  be  traced  through  the 
centuries  that  intervene,  viz.  the  later  Epic  and 
the  early  Lyric. 

The  drama  itself,  indeed,  developed  out  of  a 
special  form  of  lyric  poetry  (the  Bacchic  dithy- 
ramb), and  lyric — which  was  of  course  really  as 
old,  in  some  form,  as  the  Greek  race  itself — as 
old  as  love  and  strife  among  men — can  actually 
be  traced,  in  an  unbroken  succession  of  singers, 
whose  works  are  at  least  partly  preserved,  from 
Callinos,  at  the  beginning  of  the  seventh  century 
B.C.,  down  to  its  culmination  in  Pindar,  the 
contemporary  of  Aeschylos.  We  may  be  sure, 
too,  that  for  every  name  still  recorded  a  hundred 
minstrels  are  themselves  "unhonoured  and  un- 
sung." For  centuries,  before  and  after  Callinos, 
they  must  have  been  as  countless  as  the  ini- 
provisatori  of  the  Tuscan  valleys.  No  divine 
festival,  no  harvest-home  or  vintage-time,  no 
marriage,   funeral,  or   other   hour   of    social  joy 


Prologue.  3 

and  grief,  no  victory  in  war  or  in  athletic  strife, 
lacked  its  crown  of  song. 

Our  present  task  is,  however,  to  point  out,  that 
the  staider  and  more  formal  epic  impulse  also 
lasted,  and  the  long  roll  of  the  heroic  hexameter 
continued  in  wide  use,  for  many  generations 
after  Homer.  Indeed,  this  verse  never  became 
unfamiliar  to  the  classic  Greek  ear,  epitaphs  in 
particular  recurring  frequently  to  this  oldest 
extant  form  of  Hellenic  rhythm.  The  poems  we 
shall  have  occasion  to  discuss  may  be  grouped 
under  general  heads  thus  : — 

A.  The  Cyclic  Epics,  written  largely  to  com- 
plete the  Trojan  myth  by  tales  introducing, 
connecting,  and  completing  the  two  Homeric 
masterpieces.  Of  these  only  meagre  fragments 
and  prose  summaries  have  been  preserved. 

B.  The  Hesiodic  Poems,  representing  in  their 
present  form  rather  a  school  of  didactic  and 
theological  poetry,  than  a  single  great  singer. 
We,  however,  probably  have  before  us,  though 
both  mutilated  and  interpolated,  the  two  poems 
most  generally  accepted  as  authentic,  and  most 
influential,  among  the  later  ancients. 


4        The  Successors  of  Homer. 

C.  The  Homeric  Hymns,  ill-fitted  by  adjec- 
tive or  noun,  since  none  dates  from  the  age  of 
the  Iliad:  some  are  rather  Hesiodic  in  tone, 
while  nearly  all  are  preludes,  in  each  of  which 
the  rhapsode,  about  to  recite  from  the  great 
epics,  first  pays  his  devoirs  to  the  god  at  whose 
temple  or  festival  he  is  to  chant  the  "glories 
of  the  heroes."    And — 

D.  The  Philosophic  Treatises  in  hexameter 
verse,  which  have  their  earliest  suggestion,  indeed, 
in  Hesiod's  Theogony.  Here  the  three  chief 
names,  all  of  the  sixth  and  fifth  centuries  B.C., 
are  Xenophanes,  Parmenides,  and  Empedocles. 
Each  is  extant  only  in  fragments ;  but  Lucretius' 
splendid  De  Eerum  Natura  —  masterpiece  of 
Latin  literature  and  of  didactic  verse  generally — 
affords  us  a  lofty  consolation  for  their  loss  ;  and 
also,  by  the  way,  a  noble  imitation  in  Latin  of 
the  Greek  hexameter. 

Empedocles  died  as  late  as  440  B.C.,  and  some  of 
the  Homeric  hymns  are  doubtless  later  still:  so 
the  regnant  period  of  dactylic  hexameter  is  one 
of  five  or  more  centuries;  not  to  mention  the 
scholarly    revival    of    the    Alexandrians,   which 


Prologue.  5 

we  may  call  mock-archaic  epic.  The  present 
volume  attempts  to  open  for  the  English  reader 
this  somewhat  neglected  page  in  the  history  of 
Greek  literature.  The  space  required  for  trans- 
lations will  of  itself  prevent  much  freedom  of 
digression  into  the  tempting  fields  of  mythology, 
archaeology,  and  comparative  religion. 


The  Successors  of  Homer. 


THE   EPIC   CYCLE. 

The  Iliad  was  no  doubt  the  culminating  success 
in  a  long  literary  development ;  but  it  outlasted 
and  extinguished  all  its  predecessors.  We  know 
practically  nothing  of  poets  earlier  than  the 
author  of  the  Iliad.  In  this  chapter  we  take 
for  granted  on  the  reader's  part  a  thorough 
familiarity  with  the  plot  of  Iliad  and  Odyssey : 
such  a  familiarity  as  the  Cyclic  poets  them- 
selves reveal.  A  complete  list  of  the  lost  epics 
may  be  convenient  for  reference  in  the  course 
of  the  essay. 

A.  (1)  Theogonia. 
(2)  Titanomacliia, 

B.  (1)  Oidipodeia. 

(2)  Thebais. 

(3)  Epigonoi. 


The  Epic  Cycle.  7 

C.     (1)  Kypria. 

(2)  (Iliad). 

(3)  Aethlopis. 

(4)  Little  Iliad  (Mikra  Ilias). 

(5)  Iliou  Persis. 

(6)  Nostpi. 

(7)  (Odyssey). 

(8)  Telegonia. 

The  lost  epics  arrange  themselves  into  three 
groups,  according  as  they  deal  with  kosmic  or 
world-myths,  with  Theban  legend,  and  with  the 
great  tale  of  Troy.  We  pass  rapidly  over  the 
first  two  groups  of  these  Cyclic  poems,  which 
have  less  connection  in  plot  with  the  Homeric 
story. 

A.  The  Cyclic  Theogony  and  Titanomachia, 
beginnmg  with  the  wedlock  of  Uranos  and 
Ge  (Heaven  and  Earth),  told  the  story  of 
Creation,  and  of  strife  among  immortals.  Homer, 
by  the  way,  makes  Okeanos,  not  Uranos,  the 
source  of  all  (II.  xiv.  245,  246).  Indeed  we 
shall  have  occasion  elsewhere  to  notice  that 
Homer  usually  ignores,  if  he  had  heard  them, 
the  cruder  tales  of  deadly  strife,  cannibalism, 
and  mutilation  amons;  the  crods.     He  also  alludes 


8        The  Successors  of  Homer. 

to  the  Titans  below,  under  Tartaros  (II.  xiv. 
274,  275),  but  does  not  tell  their  story  (cf.  infra, 
pp.  79  ff.).  Authors,  age,  length,  of  these  two 
Cyclic  poems  are  unknown  or  disputed,  though 
doubtless  all  agree  they  were  post-Homeric. 
The  scanty  fragments  deal  out  such  trifling 
information  as  that  the  sun-god's  steeds  are  two 
horses  and  two  mares,  or  that  it  was  the  Centaur 
Chiron  who — 

"  Unto  Justice  guided   the   races  of  mortals,  and  taught 
them 
Offerings  unto  the  gods,  and  oaths,  and   the   shapes  of 
Olympos." 

(Perhaps  this  Greek  notion  of  the  Centaurs  as 
wiser  than  early  men  is  a  dim  tradition  of  a 
horse-riding  race.  It  will  be  recalled  that  the 
Homeric  Greeks  only  drive  their  horses  in 
chariots,  but  never  mount  them.  The  reader 
will  remember  also  what  amazement  the  Spanish 
riders  of  horses  excited  among  the  Aztecs). 

This  much,  at  any  rate,  we  learn,  even  from 
the  meagre  fragments,  viz.  that  the  metre  and 
dialect  used  in  these  Theban  epics  were  essen- 
tially Homeric.     Another  single  line — 


The  Epic  Cycle.  9 

"  In    their    midst    was    dancing   the  father   of  men  and 
immortals," 

indicates  that  the  same  familiar  tags  and  half- 
lines  recurred  as  in  Homer — 

"  The  father  of  men  and  immortals  " 

being  a  phrase  which  is  repeated  often  in  Iliad 
and  Odyssey.  For  the  loss  of  these  poems  we  are 
adequately  consoled  by  Hesiod's  Theogony,  which 
had  a  much  greater  influence  on  the  popular 
Greek  mythology  of  the  following  centuries, 

B.  The  next  three  poems  mentioned  in  the 
great  Cycle  are  concerned  with  the  tragic  story 
of  Thebes :  the  Oidipodeia,  Thebais,  Epigonoi. 
These  also  deal  with  matters  touched  on  by 
Homer,  though  only  incidentally.  Odysseus, 
e.g.,  saw  in  Hades  (Odys.  xi.)  the  ill-fated 
mother,  and  wife  as  well,  of  Oedipus,  Epicaste 
(called  afterwards,  by  the  tragedians,  locaste). 
These  three  Theban  poems  together  contained 
twenty  thousand  verses,  nearly  twice  as  much 
as  the  Odyssey.  Herodotos,  citing  the  Epigonoi, 
expresses  merely  a  passing  doubt  if  Homer  wrote 
it  (Herod.  Lx.  32).     From  the  Oidipodeia  we  have 


10      The  Successors  of  Homer. 

almost  nothing.  The  first  line  of  the  Thebais 
was — 

"  Sing,   0  goddess,  of  waterless  Argos,  whence   the  com- 
manders .  .  ." 

From  another  source  we  have  a  more  valuable 
fragment.  Athenaeus,  amid  his  usual  trivial 
gossip  (bk.  xi.  p.  465  E),  has  preserved  a  striking 
passage,  as  to  a  sort  of  family  "Luck  of  Eden- 
hall,"  which  Oedipus  curses  his  sons  for  setting 
before  him. 

"  Yet  the  divinely  descended  hero,  the  fair  Polyneikes, 
First  at  Oedipus'  side  made  ready  the  beautiful  table, 
Silvern,  of  Cadraos  wise  as  the  gods,  and  straightway 

upon  it 
Poured  for  him  sweet  wine  in  a  golden  beautiful  goblet. 
Yet  when  he  perceived  at  his  side  that  cup  of  his  father — 
Precious,  in  reverence  held — great  woe  came  over  his  spirit. 
Instantly  then  upon  both  of  his  sons  he  uttered  his  curses 
Never  to  be  escaped, — and  the  wrath  of  the  gods  was 

awakened — 
Wishing   that  they  might  never  in  amity   share  their 

possessions : 
Ever  between  them  twain  might  strife  and  battle  continue." 

No  other  classical  author,  I  believe,  alludes  to 
this  legend  of  the  goblet:   but  this  one  passage 


The  Epic  Cycle.  11 

will  suffice  to  show  that  we  have  lost  here  a 
large  mass  of  valuable  and  independent  poetic 
and  mythologic  material,  in  age  and  interest  a 
respectable  rival  of  the  Iliad. 

The  story  of  both  the  Thebais  and  the 
Epigonoi  is  alluded  to  in  a  famous  passage  of 
the  Iliad,  where  Agamemnon  reproaches  Dio- 
medes  and  Sthenelos  as  slothful  and  cowardly 
compared  with  their  sires,  and  recalls  especi- 
ally Tydeus,  Diomedes'  father,  who  had  visited 
Mykenae  with  the  banished  Theban  prince, 
Polyneikes  (II.  iv.  372-410).  Sthenelos  (not,  as 
is  so  often  said,  his  mightier  friend)  answers 
haughtily — 

"  Verily  we  make  claim  to  be  mightier  far  than  our  fathers, 
We  who  captured  the  hold  of  Thebes  with  the  sevenfold 

portals. 
Leading  a  lesser  array  beneath  those  bulwarks  of  Ares, 
Putting  our  trust  in  the  aid  of  Zeus  and  the  Heaven-sent 

portents : 
Whereas,  they,  our  sires,  by  their  own  impiety  perished." 

The  passage  sounds  as  if  Homer's  audience  were 
already  familiar  with  the  tale  of  Thebes,  perhaps 
through  earlier   epic    masters ;    for  this   Theban 


12      The  Successors  of  Homer. 

legend,  it  is  thought  probable,  may  have  been 
treated  by  poets  before  Homer.  This  is  not 
unlikely.  In  this  very  passage,  even,  the  poet 
may  be  speaking  a  bold  word  for  his  own 
heroes,  as  against  the  favourites  of  an  earlier  lay. 
Probably  no  one  supposes  any  of  the  fragments 
now  extant,  or  even  any  of  the  poems  as  read  by 
the  later  ancients,  were  pre-Homeric.  Tlie  exact 
truth  as  to  these  things,  however,  can  no  longer 
be  descried  in  the  "  dark  backward  and  abysm  of 
time." 

All  the  three  great  Attic  tragedians  have  left 
us  notable  plays  that  draw  their  material  from 
the  Theban  myths,  and  doubtless  from  these 
very  epics,  viz.  The  Seven  against  Thebes,  of 
Aeschylos  (sole  survivor  of  a  Theban  tetralogy) ; 
the  trio  of  noble  Sophoclean  plays,  in  all  of  which 
Antigone  and  Creon  appear ;  and,  lastly,  Euripides' 
more  melodramatic  and  over-ingenious  Phoe- 
nissae.  Indeed,  the  whole  Epic  Cycle  was  a 
favourite  source  of  materials  for  the  Attic 
dramatists.  But  we  must  hasten  on  to  the  Trojan 
epics  proper. 

These  latter   poems  were,   as   we  have  said. 


The  Epic  Cycle.  13 

written  for  the  most  part,  apparently,  in  avowed 
supplementary  relation  to  the  Iliad  and  Odys- 
sey. They  may  have  drawn  somewhat  upon  a 
popular  and  traditional  mass  of  myth  which 
Homer  had  not  exhausted ;  but  most  students 
get  the  impression  that  they  are  chiefly  more 
or  less  ingenious  developments  from  incidents 
or  allusions  in  the  older  epics  themselves.  The 
younger  poems  are  known  to  us  principally 
through  the  prose  summaries  of  an  otherwise 
untraceable  Proclos — but  only  so  far  as  he  is 
quoted  in  the  Literary  Miscellany  of  the 
Byzantine  Photios, — partly  through  unnamed 
scholiasts  upon  Homer  and  other  poets.  (So 
fragmentary,  and  at  third  or  fourth  hand,  is  our 
knowledge  of  this  whole  Cycle,  and  of  many 
another  literary  epoch  or  artistic  school !)  Per- 
haps the  chief  importance  of  these  lost  epics, 
now,  is  as  evidence  that  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey 
had  in  the  eighth  century  B.C.  reached  essentially 
their  present  form  and  contents.  Thus  the  in- 
sults to  Hector's  body  by  Achilles  in  II.  xxiv., 
the  meeting  of  Achilles  and  Priam,  the  wander- 
ings of  Telemachos  in  Odys.  i.-iv. — that  is,  the 


14      The  Successors  of  Homer. 

latest  additions,  according  to  modern  critics, 
attached  to  Iliad  and  Odyssey  by  younger  hands, 
— are  apparently  imitated  in  these  early  supple- 
ments. The  manner  in  which  the  latter  attach 
themselves  to  the  older  epics  points  in  the  same 
direction.  This  relation  to  Homer  should  be 
kept  constantly  in  mind  while  the  Cyclic  poems 
are  discussed. 

The  Kypria  described  the  events  preceding 
the  story  of  the  Iliad.  It  was,  indeed,  planned 
expressly  to  present  a  more  adequate  account 
of  the  causes  and  incidents  leading  up  to 
the  famous  strife.  The  favourite  legend  made 
this  poem  also  Homer's  own  composition,  but 
stated  that  it  was  bestowed  as  a  gift  upon  his 
son-m-law,  the  Cypriote  Stasinos,  who  was  ap- 
parently to  recite  it  as  his  own.  This  explana- 
tion may  have  been  an  attempt  to  compromise 
between  conflicting  claims  as  to  the  authorship. 
That  the  poem  was  really  of  Cyprian  origin  is,  of 
course,  a  natural  conjecture,  at  least. 

Herodotos  (ii.  117)  asserts  confidently  that  the 
poem  is  "  not  Homer's,  but  some  one's  else ;  for 
in  the  Kypria  it  is  stated  that,  on  the  third  day 


The  Epic  Cycle.  15 

out  from  Sparta,  Alexander  reached  Ilios  with 
Helen,  having  had  a  fair  wind  and  smooth  sea ; 
whereas  the  poet  of  the  Iliad  says  that  he 
wandered  about  with  her."  Herodotos  had  just 
quoted  the  allusion  (II.  vi.  290-292)  to  the— 

"  Work  of  Sidonian  women,  whom  Alexander  the  god-like 
Brought  from  Sidon  along,  as  the  widewayed  waters  he 

traversed, 
Homeward  sailing    to   Troy   with  Helena,   daughter    of 

princes." 

Herodotos  shows  here  his  usual  good  judgment 
in  literary  criticism;  nevertheless,  in  our  prose 
summary  of  the  Kypria  (Kinkel,  Fragmenta 
Epicorum,  p.  18)  we  read :  "  Hera  sends  a  storm 
upon  them,  and  Alexander,  being  driven  to  Sidon, 
takes  the  city."  This  may  weU  be  a  late  inter- 
polation in  the  Kypria  itself — or  merely  in  the 
summary — suggested  by  the  famous  and  trenchant 
criticism  of  Herodotos.  Doubtless,  in  many  such 
details  the  less  illustrious,  poems  may  have  been 
forced  into  agreement  with  the  accepted  master- 
pieces, when  the  Cycle  was  reduced  to  order. 
Indeed,  our  chief  informant  and  summarist, 
Proclos,    remarks    that    the    Cyclic    epics    were 


16      The  Successors  of  Homer. 

preserved  and  studied  "  more  for  their  consecutive 
treatment  of  incidents  than  for  their  intrinsic 
merit." 

The  tale  of  eleven  books  credited  to  the  Kypria 
indicates  about  5000-7000  hexameter  verses  :  for 
these  Alexandrian  divisions  into  books  were 
largely  for  mechanical  convenience  in  rolling 
the  scrolls.  The  eccentric  number,  eleven,  may 
have  arisen  when  one  was  later  trimmed  away, 
apparently  the  last,  which  probably  coincided 
too  closely  with  the  opening  of  the  Iliad. 

This  poet  probably  invented,  or  at  least  first 
recorded,  the  story  of  the  strife  for  the  apple 
and  the  choice  of  Paris  as  umpire.  From  the 
Kypria,  or  at  any  rate  under  its  influence,  was 
probably  interpolated  into  the  Iliad  the  only 
allusion  to  those  incidents,  viz.  the  awkward  and 
ill-placed  verses,  II.  xxiv.  29-30. 

The  opening  lines  of  the  Kypria  are  preserved 
in  a  somewhat  corrupt  form. 

"  Once  on  a  time  was  Earth  by  the  races  of  men  made  wearj', 
Who  were  wandering  numberless  over  the  breadth  of  her 

bosom. 
Zeus  with   pity  beheld   it,  and   took   in    his  wise    heart 
counsel 


The  Epic  Cycle.  17 

How  to  relieve  of  her  burden  the  Earth,  life-giver  to  all 

things, 
Fanning  to  flame  that   terrible  struggle,  the  war  upon 

Troia. 
So  should  the  burden  by  death  be  removed :  and  they  in 

the  Troad 
Perished — the  heroes ;  the  counsel  of  Zeus  was  brought  to 

fulfilment." 

Here  our  informant — it  is  the  scholiast  on  the 
opening  verses  of  the  Iliad — suddenly  breaks  off. 
He  has  given  us  just  enough,  however,  to  show 
how  skilfully  the  new  portico  was  adjusted  to 
the  old  Homeric  temple.  The  fifth  line  of  the 
Iliad  also  closes — 

"  The  counsel  of  Zeus  was  brought  to  fulfilment," 

and  he  who  read  the  Kypria  first  would  now 
understand  the  Iliad's  opening  passage  to  refer 
back  to  this  earlier  and  larger  "  plan  of  Zeus." 
The  scene  at  Aulis  where  the  serpent  devours 
the  sparrow  and  her  young,  alluded  to  in  II.  i., 
was  given  in  full  in  the  Kypria.  Such  incidents, 
and  traits  like  Nestor's  garrulity,  seem  like 
elaborated  cross-references,  as  it  were,  devised 
between  the  epics. 

c 


18      The  Successors  of  Homer. 

Still,  new  incidents  occur  which  hardly  agree 
with  Homer,  In  particular,  Helen  is  stated,  in 
an  extant  fragment,  to  have  been  the  daughter 
of  Zeus  and  Nemesis,  so  not  mortal  on  either 
side.  Polydeukes,  her  brother,  is  also  immortal, 
whereas  in  Homer  both  he  and  Castor  are  already 
"  covered  by  earth,  in  Lacedaemon." 

Especially  interesting  is  Achilles'  desire  to 
behold  Helen,  whereupon  Aphrodite  and  Thetis 
bring  these  two  glorious  creatures  into  each 
other's  presence.  On  the  one  hand  this  seems 
to  point  back  toward  Homer's  equally  bold — and 
dramatically  better  justified  —  conjunction  of 
Achilles  and  Priam  in  his  closing  scenes.  On 
the  other  side  it  is  the  first  hint  of  the  later 
feeling  that  made  Achilles  and  Helen  alike 
deathless,  and  united  the  two  supreme  types  of 
youthful  beauty  in  eternal  wedlock. 

The  name  and  doom  of  Iphigenia,  the  tale  of 
Philoctetes  and  the  snake,  with  many  another 
favourite  tragic  subject,  first  appear,  so  far  as 
we  know,  in  the  Kypria.  Just  how  the  poem 
ended,  and  how  closely  it  was  attached  to  the 
Iliad,  is  not  stated.     Among  the   last   incidents 


The  Epic  Cycle.  19 

noticed  in  the  summary  are  the  captures  of 
Briseis  and  Chryseis,  as  also  a  special  "  counsel 
of  Zeus "  to  withdraw  Achilles  from  the  Greek 
alliance  and  relieve  the  Trojans.  This  repetition 
of  the  fateful  words  has,  even  in  the  dry  prosaic 
outline,  somewhat  the  effect  of  a  solemn  refrain. 
Last  of  all  is  noted  "  a  catalogue  of  the  Trojans' 
allies."  This,  of  course,  now  stands  in  our  Iliad 
(ii.  816-877),  where  its  authenticity  has  been  often 
attacked.  It  may  be  a  late  loan  from  the  Kypria, 
and  its  transfer  may  have  accompanied,  or  caused, 
the  suppression  of  a  twelfth  book  in  the  Kypria 
itself. 

Thus  far  we  have  depended  chiefly  upon 
Proclos'  outlines.  The  fragments  which  have 
been  transmitted  to  us  give  little  further  aid 
in  reconstructing  the  poem.  One  verse  from  the 
Kypria  became  a  very  famous  maxim  in  later 
days,  grimly  Machiavelian  though  it  is,  reap- 
pearing in  Aristotle,  Polybios,  and  others, — 

'•  Foolish    is    he    who,    slaying    the    father,    spareth    his 
children." 

Homer's  praises  of  wine  are  echoed  by  this  later 


20      The  Successors  of  Homer. 

singer,  who  had  evidently  wedded  his  master's 
muse,  if  not  his  daughter — 

"  Wine  in  truth,  Menelaos,  the  gods  for  men  who  are  mortal 
Best  amid  all  their  blessings  accorded,  to  scatter  their 
sorrows." 

The  largest  single  passage  surviving  describes 
the  transformations  of  Nemesis  when  flying  from 
the  love  of  Zeus.     She  flees — 

"  Sometimes  under  the  wave  of  the  sea  with  its  thunderous 

billows, 

Sometimes  unto  the  bounds  of  earth  and  the  river  of  Ocean, 

Sometimes  over  the  land  with  its  fertile  meadows  ;  and  ever 

Shapes  of  all  earthly  beasts  she  assumed,  in  the  hope  to 

escape  him." 

We  certainly  get  the  impression  that  this  union, 
and  the  consequent  divine  origin  of  Helen, 
held  a  prominent  j)lace  in  the  story.  It  was, 
perhaps,  the  boldest  addition  to  the  Homeric 
tradition. 

Even  in  this  scant  handful  of  fragments,  how- 
ever, the  pre-eminent  activity  of  Aphrodite, 
suzerain  of  Cyprus,  fully  appears.  Athenaeus, 
naming  the  flowers  suitable  for  garlands,  quotes 


The  Epic  Cycle.  21 

the  verses  of  "Hegesias  or  Stasinos  or  whoever 
the  poet  was  " — 

"  Garments  upon  her  body  she  put,  that  the  Hours  and  the 

Graces 
Fashioned,  and  dipt  for  her  in  flowers  that  grow  in  the 

Springtime, 
Such  as  the  season  brings:   in  the  crocus  and  hyacinth 

blossom. 
Clustering  violets  too,  and  the  beautiful  flowers  of  the 

roses — 
Sweet,  iinto  nectar  like, — and  the  cups  of  the  lily  ambrosial. 
With  the  narcissus  ...  so  Aphrodite 
Garments  wore  that  with  odours  of  every  flower  were 

fragrant." 

Still    more    clearly  does    the  queen  of    love 
glimmer  upon  us  in  the  verses, — 

"  Aphrodite,  delighting  in  laughter,  amid  her  attendants 
Out  of  the  odorous  flowers  of  the  earth  was  plaiting  her 
garlands." 

It  is  but  a  tantalizing  parting  glimpse  that  is 
accorded  us,  however,  as  she  passes  we  know  not 
whither,  by  Nymphs  and  Graces  attended — 
"  Sweetly  singing  adown  Mount  Ida  abounding  in  fountains." 

If  this   gleaning   seems   meagre,   the   English 
reader  may  at  least  rest  assured  that  we  have 


22      The  Successors  of  Homer. 

now  set  before  him  almost  every  scrap  which 
has  drifted  to  us  in  metrical  form.  The  frequent 
allusions  to  the  Kypria,  throughout  the  centuries 
of  later  Hellenism,  give  us  no  material  to  restore 
the  lost  verses. 

Even  so  bare  an  outline  of  the  Kypria,  and 
of  the  other  Cyclic  epics,  will  throw  an  important 
light  on  such  statements  as  that  of  Aeschylos, 
that  his  dramas  were  "  crumbs  from  the  great 
banquet  of  Homer."  Yet  it  is  certain  that  the 
plots  of  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey  themselves 
were  rarely  dramatized  in  Athens.  They  would 
not  "crumble"  effectively,  as  Aristotle  asserts. 
Aeschylos,  if  the  incident  be  authentic  at  all, 
doubtless  used  the  term  "Homer"  in  the  wider 
sense.  (Nearly  every  prehistoric  Greek  poem 
was  once  popularly  ascribed  to  the  one  supreme 
bard.)  Athenaeus  (277  E)  expressly  says  of 
Sophocles,  that  he  delighted  to  draw  his  subjects 
from  the  Epic  Cycle.  The  general  truth  of  this 
remark  can  still  be  demonstrated ;  but,  of  course, 
the  exact  extent  of  the  dramatist's  debt  to  this 
and  other  sources  can  rarely  be  indicated  in 
detail.     The   true   artist    has    but    one  rule,   to 


The  Epic  Cycle.  23 

borrow  wherever  he  finds  what  he  needs,  and 
to  recast  no  less  freely,  until  the  material  seems 
originally  intended  for  the  place  where  he  sets 
it.  Not  merely,  however,  as  the  favourite  quarry 
of  tragic  poets  and  other  artists,  but  for  its  own 
creative  power  and  beauty,  we  would  gladly  have 
restored  to  us  this  lost  epic  of  unknown, — or  at 
least  disputed, — authorship.  Of  this  there  is  little 
hope,  though  the  Egyptian  discoveries  of  recent 
years  make  all  things  seem  possible. 

The  Kypria,  then,  as  we  have  seen,  was  added, 
not  unfittingly,  as  a  stately  portico  of  song, 
introductory  to  the  older  epic.  It  was  much 
more  evident,  however,  that  the  Iliad  needed  a 
sequel,  rather  than  an  introduction.  Readers  of 
the  Iliad  in  every  age  must  feel  that  the  doom 
of  Achilles  and  the  fall  of  the  guilty  city  are 
most  effective  subjects,  yet  awaiting  their 
minstrel.  In  a  later  age,  Virgil's  second  book 
of  the  Aeneid  has  nobly  supplied  the  latter 
scene,  and  the  Latin  poet  has  not  failed  to  link 
his  incidents  unmistakably  to  the  earlier  narra- 
tive. Such  a  continuation  was  first  composed, 
however,  by  Arctinos  of   Miletos,  in  the  early 


24      The  Successors  of  Homer. 

Olympiads,  i.e.  in  the  eighth  century  B.C.  The 
ancients  were  quite  well  agreed  as  to  this  poet's 
name  and  age.  That  he,  like  the  author  of  the 
Kypria,  found  our  Iliad  in  its  present  form  is 
pretty  clearly  indicated  by  the  fact  that  he — or 
else  whoever  finally  arranged  the  Cycle — even 
altered  Homer's  closing  line.     The  Iliad  ends — 

"So  they  made  ready  the  grave  for  Hector,  the  tamer  of 
horses." 

The  Greek  scholiast  on  this  final  verse  remarks : 
"  Some  write, — 

*  So  they  made  ready  the  grave  for  Hector  :  the  Amazon 
straightway 
Came,  who  was  daughter  to  Ares,  the  haughty  destroyer 
of  heroes.' " 

This  transitional  passage  is  curiously  illustrated  in 
various  works  of  art.  For  instance,  the  widowed 
Andromache,  still  holding  her  funereal  urn,  is 
seen  in  the  group  which  welcomes  the  arrival  of 
the  Amazon  queen. 

About  a  century  later  still,  the  Lesbian  poet 
Lesches  wrote  his  Little  Iliad,  probably  a  rival 
poem  to  that  of  Arctinos,  and  covering  essentially 


The  Epic  Cycle.  25 

the  same  ground,  viz.  the  whole  tale  from 
Hector's  funeral  to  the  sack  of  the  city.  But  the 
later  hand,  whatever  and  whenever  it  may  have 
been,  that  forced  all  these  poems  into  a  more 
perfect  sequence  of  historical  events — at  the  cost, 
as  Proclos  intimates,  of  their  poetic  value,  seems 
to  have  culled  from  each  lesser  poem  the  portion 
which  \vas  considered  most  effective.  Hence,  in 
our  summary,  the  Cycle  is  thus  continued  after  (2) 
the  Iliad. 

(3)  Aethiopis,  by  Arctiiios,  in  five  books, 
closing  in  the  midst  of  Ajax'  strife  with  Odysseus 
for  the  armour  of  the  dead  Achilles. 

(4)  Little  Iliad  of  Lesclics,  in  four  books,  begin- 
ning with  Odysseus'  victory,  in  the  strife  for  the 
armour,  and  Ajax'  suicide,  ending  with  the  recep- 
tion of  the  wooden  horse  into  the  town. 

(5)  Destruction  of  Ilios,  in  two  books,  again  by 
Arctinos,  exactly  joining  on  here  (!)  with  the 
debate  of  the  Trojans  what  to  do  with  the  horse, 
and  ending  with  the  departure  of  the  Greeks  for 
home,  under  Athene's  displeasure. 

Of  course  it  is  quite  incredible,  and  indeed 
absurd,  that  Arctinos  should  have  left  any  such 


26      The  Successors  of  Homer. 

ragged  gap  in  his  work,  or  between  his  works,  to  be 
filled  by  a  man  of  alien  race  three  generations 
later ;  nor  can  we  believe  that  both  his  Aethiopis 
and  the  Little  Iliad  stopped  in  the  midst  of  most 
absorbing  crises!  The  explanation,  which  we 
gave  beforehand,  is  generally  accepted  by  students, 
and  is  made  nearly  certain  by  the  extant  frag- 
ments of  both  poems.  These  do  not,  in  either 
case,  as  we  shall  see,  confine  themselves  to  the 
limits  so  artificially  set  for  them  in  the  Cycle. 
Let  us  now  study  the  three  poems  in  succession 
somewhat  more  closely. 

The  Aethiopis,  whether  a  separate  poem  or,  as 
I  believe,  a  mere  portion  of  Arctinos'  work,  was 
chiefly  occupied  with  Achilles'  last  two  exploits — 
the  slaying  of  the  Amazon  queen,  Penthesilea,  and, 
finally,  of  Memnon  the  Ethiopian,  son  of  Eos  the 
Dawn-goddess.  Both  these  gallant  figures  will 
be  recalled  as  among  the  frescoes,  or  reliefs,  on 
Dido's  palace  walls  (Aen.  i.  489-491).  These 
pictures  have  always  impressed  me  with  a  startling 
vividness  hardly  equalled  elsewhere  in  the  Aeneid. 
Virgil  may  be  describing  some  series  of  panels 
well-known  to  him  and  to  his  courtly  auditors. 


The  Epic  Cycle.  27 

The  tragic  fate  and  youthful  beauty  of  Penthesilea 
and  Memnon  made  them  favourite  subjects  for 
every  art.  In  the  Aethiopis  Achilles  falls  in  love 
with  Penthesilea — perhaps  after  killing  her, — and 
slays  Thersites  for  jeering  at  his  passion.  Of  this 
passage  Schiller  betrays  his  ignorance  by  a  fine 
verse — 

"  Patroclus  liegt  begraben,  und  Thersites  kommt  ruriick !  " 

The  incident  looks,  in  our  summary  of  the 
Aethiopis,  like  a  bold  embroidery  on  Homer's 
statement  that  Thersites  "  especially  railed  at " 
Achilles  among  other  chieftains.  The  striking 
adjective  "  Hephaistos-fashioned,"  applied  in  the 
prose  outline  of  Aethiopis  to  Memnon's  panoply, 
probably  indicates  a  closer  imitation  of  a  familiar 
Homeric  passage ;  and  is,  so  far,  a  broad  hint, 
also,  that  the  passage  in  question — viz.  the  detailed 
account  of  Achilles'  shield,  generally  considered  a 
late  addition  to  the  Hiad — was  already  in  the  text 
of  Homer.  In  the  Aethiopis  the  slaying  of 
Achilles  is  accomplished  at  the  Scaean  gate  by 
Apollo  and  Paris,  just  as  the  dying  Hector  had 
foretold  in  the  Iliad.     The  reliance  of  this  poem 


28       The  Successors  of  Homer. 

upon  motifs  drawn  from  the  Iliad  is  indeed 
especially  clear  and  constant.  E.g.  Nestor's  son 
Antilochos  takes  Patroclos'  place  in  some  degree ; 
and  Antilochos'  death  leads  up  to  Memnon's, 
much  as  Patroclos'  fall  hastened  the  doom  of 
Hector.  Again,  Ajax  bears  Achilles'  body  out  of 
the  fray  to  the  ships,  reminding  us  of  the  close 
of  II.  xvii.,  where  Patroclos'  corpse  is  similarly 
rescued. 

The  coming  of  Thetis,  with  her  sisters  and  the 
Muses,  to  mourn  for  Achilles,  was  needed  here, 
and  the  very  similar  account  which  appears  so 
unexpectedly  in  Odys.  xxiv. — where  Agamem- 
non's ghost  describes  to  Achilles,  after  so  many 
years,  the  latter's  own  funeral — may  itself  be 
borrowed,  later,  from  this  passage.  This  mention 
of  the  Muses'  presence,  also,  at  the  funeral  rites, 
tempts  us  to  bring  up  once  again  the  question, 
why  Achilles  in  life,  alone  among  the  heroes, 
holds  the  lyre  and  sings  "the  glories  of  men." 
Is  it  an  audacious  hint  by  the  courtly  bards  that 
the  lyre  is  in  truth  as  honourable  as  the  prince's 
sword  itself?  They  would  hardly  have  dared 
proclaim  more  openly,  like  Clough,  that — 


The  Epic  Cycle.  29 

"Hundreds  of  heroes  fought  and  fell 
That  Homer  in  the  end  might  tell !  " 

The  only  sustained  passage  extant  from  the 
Aethiopis  is  a  very  curious  one  of  eight  lines, 
describing  two  brothers,  physicians,  one  especially 
skilled  in  heroic  surgery,  the  other  in  therapeutics 
and,  above  all,  in  diagnosis — 

"  He  was  the  first,  indeed,  to  perceive  the  frenzy  of  Ajax, 
Seeing  his  eyes  that  darted  fire,  and  the  gloom  of  his  spirit." 

It  is  very  possible  that  the  death  of  Achilles, 
dragging  Ajax,  as  it  were,  into  the  grave  after 
him,  through  the  fatal  contest  for  the  divine 
armour,  formed  either  an  important  crisis  in 
Arctinos'  work,  or  even  the  finale  of  a  poem 
complete  in  itself.  These  closing  scenes  in  the 
young  Homeric  hero's  life  have  had  a  great  power 
and  attraction  for  dramatic  or  epic  poets  in  all 
ages.  Von  Christ  remarks  that  even  Goethe  has 
taken  his  place  as  latest  of  the  Homerids  by  his 
(unfinished)  Achilleis.  Like  his  forerunners,  the 
German  poet  drew  his  inspiration  and  suggestions 
chiefly  from  the  Iliad.  Some  of  his  original 
touches  are  demonstrably  anti-Homeric,  yet  we 
have  reason  to  regret  that  the  experiment  was 


30      The  Successors  of  Homer. 

so  soon  abandoned.  It  is  a  mere  fragment — left 
so  for  half  a  lifetime,  like  Browning's  projected 
tragedy  on  Hippolytos. 

A  scholiast  on  Pindar  tells  us  that  the  poet 
of  the  Aethiopis  made  Ajax  "  slay  himself  at 
dawn."  But  the  death  of  Ajax,  according  to 
Proclos'  anatomical  divisions,  came  not  in  the 
Aethiopis  at  all,  but  in  the  Little  Iliad.  Still 
more  clearly  effective  in  breaking  down  these 
absurd  partitions  is  a  famous  passage  of  Aristotle 
(Poetics,  xxiii.  p.  1459  A),  where,  contrasting  the 
masterly  simplicity  of  plot  in  the  Homeric  poems 
with  the  crowded  events  in  these  supplements, 
he  says  one  or  two  dramas  only  have  ever  been 
carved  out  of  Iliad  or  Odyssey,  but  from  the 
Aethiopis  many,  and  from  the  Little  Iliad  "  more 
than  eight;"  and  in  his  following  list  are  in- 
cluded Sinon,  Destruction  of  Troy,  and  The  Setting 
Sail,  all  evident  encroachments  on  the  latter  of 
the  two  sections  assigned  by  Proclos  to  Arctinos. 
Indeed,  one  of  these  plays,  the  Destruction  of 
Troy  (Iliou  Persis),  though  drawn  from  Lesches' 
Little  Iliad,  had  precisely  the  title  given  to 
Arctinos'  closing  poem !     It   is  also  evident  by 


The  Epic  Cycle.  31 

this  time  that  the  arrangement  of  the  Cycle  in 
its  Proclean — one  is  tempted  to  say,  instead, 
Procrustean — shape  was  a  comparatively  late  one, 
since  Herodotos,  the  dramatists,  and  Aristotle 
knew  the  several  poems  in  their  unabridged  form 
with  all  their  contradictions  and  overlappings. 
The  Little  Iliad  really  announces  a  larger  theme 
than  does  the  elder  poem.  The  opening  couplet 
may  be  rendered  in  literal  prose — 

"  Ilios  I  sing,  and  Dardania  rich  in  colts, 
For  which  the  Danai,  servants  of  Ares,  much  endured." 

It  has  been  remarked  that  the  opening  word 
may  have  suggested  the  name  "  Iliad ; "  that  it 
was  first  applied  to  this  poem,  and  only  later 
transferred  to  the  greater  epic.  This  must  always 
remain  a  mere  conjecture.  This  exordium,  quoted 
for  us  in  a  life  of  Homer  falsely  attributed  to 
Herodotos,  had  probably  been  trimmed  away 
in  the  Proclean  recension  of  the  whole  Epic 
Corpus, 

The  longest  passage  from  the  Little  Iliad  now 
remaining  is  but  five  lines ;  interesting  to  lovers 
of  Hector  and  his  family  as  recording  the  fate 
of  Ms  boy — 


32      The  Successors  of  Homer. 

"  Then  the  illustrious  son  of  the  noble-hearted  Achilles 
Down  to  the  hollowed  vessels  the  widow  of  Hector  conducted. 
As  for  the  child,  from  the  breast  of  the  fair-tressed  servant 

he  tore  him, 
Grasped  by  the  feet,  and  hurled  him  down  from  the  tower  ; 

and  upon  him 
Crimson  death  as  he  fell  laid  hold— and  a  destiny  ruthless." 

The  poet  is,  however,  clearly  not  following  any 
fixed  popular  tradition,  or  other  authority,  but 
merely  attempting  to  work  out  Homer's  hint  at 
II.  xxiv.  735,  where  Andromache  expresses  her 
fear  that  her  boy  will  meet  some  such  fate 
in  the  sack  of  the  city.  Indeed  these  lines  of 
the  Little  Iliad  are  all  closely  imitated  from 
this  and  various  other  Homeric  passages  (cf. 
especially  iii.  189;  v.  26;  vi.  467;  i.  591,  and 
V.  83).  The  fine  closing  verse,  in  fact,  occurs 
thrice,  without  change,  in  the  Iliad!  This 
passage,  too,  was  probably  trimmed  away 
altogether  at  that  comparatively  late  period  when 
the  Cycle  was  forced  into  continuous  and  con- 
sistent form.  The  whole  story  of  the  embarkation 
was  then  assigned  to  the  next  poem,  the  Iliou 
Persis. 

Moreover,  the  Proclean  synopsis  of  that  rival 


The  Epic  Cycle.  33 

poem,  the  Iliou  Persis,  or  "Sack  of  Troy,"  ex- 
pressly makes  Odysseus — not  Neoptolemos — slay 
Astyanax.  All  such  evidence  strengthens  our 
general  impression,  that  each  succeeding  poet  is 
an  inventive  artist,  piecing  his  own  conceptions 
upon  the  Homeric  fabric,  rather  than  merely 
versifying  a  familiar  tradition.  My  own  feeling 
(already  voiced  elsewhere)  is  that  the  Iliad, 
effacing  the  memory  of  the  early  literary  attempts 
on  the  same  theme,  and  also  of  the  popular 
tradition  on  which  they  were  doubtless  in  some 
degree  built,  remained  essentially  the  only  source 
of  inspiration  or  suggestion  for  later  minstrels. 
■  Whether  the  two  poems  ascribed  to  Arctinos  are 
but  sections  of  an  original  single  work,  can  hardly 
be  determined  with  certainty.  Most  students 
are  convinced  that,  at  any  rate,  there  was  no  gap 
consciously  left  between  them.  The  Iliou  Persis, 
however,  in  Proclos'  summary,  begins  with  the 
debate,  "What  shall  be  done  with  the  wooden 
horse  ? "  Only  one  of  Laocoon's  sons  is  slain  with 
their  father  by  the  serpents  in  this,  om-  oldest, 
account.  This  version,  though  not  followed  by 
Virgil,  is  quite  reconcilable  with  the  grouping  in 

D 


34      The  Successors  of  Homer. 

the  famous  piece  of  sculpture,  and  is,  I  believe, 
mentioned  by  Lessing  in  his  essay  "  Laocoon."  If 
this  son  alone  had  joined  in  his  father's  warning 
against  the  horse,  his  fate,  and  his  brother's 
escape,  would  make  the  deceptive  portent  all 
the  more  convincing.  Horrified  at  this  event 
(the  summary  continues),  Aeneas  and  his  follow- 
ing withdrew  to  Ida — before  the  sack  began. 
This  is  hardly  reconcilable  with  the  statement 
quoted  from  the  Little  Iliad,  that  Aeneas  shared 
Andromache's  captivity  under  Neoptolemos. 
Indeed,  these  variations  show  once  more  that 
the  poets  had  usually  no  data  before  them  save 
the  incomplete  hints  in  Homer.  Where  he  fails 
them  they  disagree  hopelessly.  In  the  Iliad  the 
prophecy  is  merely  that  Aeneas  and  his  posterity 
shall  rule  "over  the  Trojans."  Perhaps  it  is 
merely  chance  that  no  locality  is  added.  We 
suppose  Homer  was  flattering  a  race  then  ruling 
in  the  Troad.  Presumably  in  Lesches'  time  any 
such  occasion  for  courtly  adulation  had  passed 
away. 

The  general  picture  of  the  city's  fall,  with  the 
escape  of  Aeneas,  death  of  Priam  and  Polyxena, 


The  Epic  Cycle.  35 

and  more  bitter  fate  of  Cassandra,  Hecabe, 
Anckomache,  and  the  rest,  is  especially  familiar 
to  every  student  of  literature,  from  Yirgil, 
from  spectacular  Attic  tragedies  like  Euripides' 
Troades,  etc.  There  is  also  a  remarkably  fine 
vase-painting,  most  conveniently  accessible,  per- 
haps, in  Baumeister  (Tafel  xiv.),  which  may 
remind  us  how  dominant  an  influence  this  myth 
exercised  upon  the  plastic  arts  as  well  as  in 
literature.  These  stately  figures  and  groups,  in 
spirit  high  above  the  humble  form  in  which 
they  appear,  are  evidently  reproductions,  more 
or  less  remote,  after  masterpieces  of  sculpture 
and  painting.  A  comparison  of  this  with  the 
Tabula  Iliaca  (Baumeister,  Tafel  xiii.),  will  show 
graphically  how,  in  the  sixth  century,  the  Sicilian 
poet  Stesichoros  (the  authority  cited  upon  the 
Tabula  Iliaca),  was  already  drawing  Aeneas,  the 
supposed  founder  of  Sicilian  Eryx  and  Segesta, 
into  the  central  position  which  is  later  claimed 
for  him  as  the  ancestor  of  the  Eomans. 

There  is  no  hope  that  French  excavators  at 
Delphi  will  recover  the  greatest  artistic  treatment 
of  this  grim  theme  of  Troy's  downfall,  viz.  the 


36      The  Successors  of  Homer. 

painting  by  Polygnotos  in  the  Lesche,  so  elabo- 
rately described  in  Pausanias.* 

The  last  works  on  our  list  must  be  given  even 
more  superficial  treatment.  (6)  The  Nostoi,  or 
"Eeturn  of  the  Heroes,"  is  credited  with  five 
books.  It  fits  excellently  just  before  (7)  the 
Odyssey,  being,  as  it  were,  summarized  Odys.  i. 
11,  12. 

"  Then  all  others,  as  many  as  fled  from  fearful  destruction, 
Home  were  come,  and  escaped  from  the  dangers  of  war  and 
the  waters." 

The  author,  Hagios,  is  usually  assigned  to 
Troizene,  in  the  Argolid.  Tliis  is  perhaps  an 
indication  of  late  date,  as  the  earlier  epic  school 
is  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  Aegean.  It  will  be 
remembered  how  the  varying  lists  of  Homer's 
birth-places  all  bring  him  progressively  west- 
ward across  the  Archipelago.  The  subject  ot 
the  Nostoi  lacked  unity  and  absorbing  interest. 
It  seems  to  have  many  points  of  contact  with 

*  Since  these  words  were  written,  the  pitiful  ruins  of  the 
Losche  have  been  uncovered,  and  our  prophecy  is  fully 
justified. 


The  Epic  Cycle.  37 

the  early  books  of  the  Odyssey;  but  some  por- 
tions of  Menelaos'  and  Nestor's  narratives,  in 
particular,  may  be  actually  borrowed  from  the 
Nostoi  into  the  present  text  of  Homer.  Some 
scholars  believe  that  Odysseus'  adventures  were 
included  too,  but  that  seems  unlikely.  Eather, 
the  intention  to  fit  the  poem  into  the  place 
before  the  Odyssey  is  often  indicated;  for  in- 
stance, by  the  incident,  that  Neoptolemos,  return- 
ing home  by  land  across  Thrace,  meets  Odysseus 
at  Maroneia,  a  place  mentioned  by  Homer  also. 
(Cf.  Odys.  ix.  40,  196.)  No  interesting  frag- 
ments of  the  Nostoi  have  been  preserved.  The 
only  complete  verses  transmitted  to  us  allude 
to  an  earlier  myth — the  famous  rejuvenation  of 
Jason's  father  by  Medeia : — 

"Aeson   straightway  a  lovely  and  vigorous  stripling   she 
rendered, 
Causing  the  marks  of  age  by  her  cunning  devices  to  vanish, 
Boiling  many  medicinal  herbs  in  golden  cauldrons." 

(In  later  poetry  the  malicious  enchantress 
refuses  to  utter  the  life-restoring  charm. ) 

This  statement  just  made,  as  to  the  lack  of 
interesting    fragments,   is    equally    true    of    (8) 


38      The  Successors  of  Homer. 

tlie  Telegonia,  in  two  books,  by  Eugammon  of 
Cyrene, — latest  in  time,  last  in  subject,  and  per- 
haps least  in  poetic  attractiveness,  among  the 
Trojan  epics.  Indeed,  not  a  line  of  this  poem 
is  preserved.  Beginning  with  the  burial  of  the 
suitors,  it  was,  without  doubt,  an  avowed  ap- 
pendix to  the  Odyssey.  We  gather  from  the 
summary  that  Odysseus'  later  wanderings  and 
loves,  prophesied  by  Teiresias  in  Odys.  xi., 
were  by  no  means  world-wide,  but  confined 
closely  to  Greece,  and,  indeed,  to  the  neigh- 
bouring mainland.  The  far  more  impressive 
story  of  Odysseus'  last  voyage  to  the  Antipodes, 
related  by  his  ghost  in  the  Dantesque  Inferno, 
has  not,  I  believe,  been  traced  to  any  early 
source.  The  hero  of  the  Telegonia,  Telegonos,  is 
Odysseus'  son,  by  Circe.  In  his  quest  for  his 
father — which,  by  the  way,  is  clearly  an  imitation 
of  Telemachos'  wanderings — he  lands  in  Ithaca, 
and  unwittingly  slays  Odysseus.  "With  the  body 
he  carries  off,  to  Circe's  isle,  the  widowed  Pene- 
lope, and  also  Telemachos.  Here  the  curtain  falls 
upon  a  bit  of  melodrama,  whereby  both  Odysseus' 
widows  are  happily  consoled — for  Telegonos  weds 


The  Epic  Cycle.  39 

Penelope  and  Telemachos  Circe !    The  rich  vintage 
of  Homeric  wine  is  running  lees  indeed. 


Of  course,  at  the  close  of  such  a  survey  as  this 
we  return  to  the  depressing  consciousness,  that  a 
lost  Cycle  leaves  only  tantalizing  fragments  and 
insoluble  problems  behind  it.  Nevertheless,  as 
the  chief  source  of  the  plots  for  Attic  tragedy, 
and  doubtless  in  very  large  degree  for  later 
plastic  art  and  painting  as  well,  these  works 
deserve  at  least  passing  attention.  Originally 
built  about  the  statelier  shapes  of  the  Iliad  and 
Odyssey,  they  have  crumbled  away  under  the 
hand  of  time,  like  the  Byzantine  and  Moham- 
medan walls  which  for  a  while  disfigured  the 
statelier  outlines  of  the  Phidian  Parthenon, 
Such  glimpses  into  vanished  literatures  tempt 
us  to  apply  to  authors,  extant  and  forgotten, 
the  lines  which  the  poet  in  Thanatopsis  has 
uttered  of  mankind  in  general — 

"  All  tliat  tread 
The  globe  are  but  a  handful  to  the  tribes 
That  slumber  in  its  bosom." 


40      The  Successors  of  Homer. 

Note, — The  chief  work  of  researcli  on  this  subject  is  still 
Welcker's  Der  Epische  Cyclus,  a  rather  ponderous  German 
book  of  the  last  generation.  The  reliefs,  wbich  with  other 
plastic  art  throw  important  light  on  the  Cycle,  are  best 
treated  in  Otto  Jabn's  Griechiscbe  Bilderchroniken.  See 
also  Baumeister's  Denkmaler,  i.  pp.  317,  716,  etc.  A  good 
outline  of  the  plots,  and  exhaustively  thorough  discussion 
as  to  the  age,  of  the  Cyclic  poems  is  found  in  Jevons's 
"  History  of  Greek  Literature,"  pp.  54-61  and  61-69.  For 
the  fragments  themselves,  the  classical  student  will  consult 
Kinkel,  Fragmenta  Epicorum  Graecorum  (Teubner). 


(     41     ) 


II. 


THE  -WOEKS   AND   DAYS. 


The  ancients  believed  that  the  Greek  cities  of 
Asia  Minor  were  colonies,  founded  from  the  little 
peninsula  which  they  regarded  as  the  original 
home  of  their  race.  Modern  scholars  have  gene- 
rally accepted  this  view,  though  Professor  Curtius 
dissents  strongly.  This  tide  of  eastward  emi- 
gration began,  we  are  told,  nearly  a  century 
after  the  Trojan  war.  Accordingly,  the  Homeric 
poems  themselves  give  no  hint  of  Greek  cities  in 
Asia  in  Priam's  day.  On  the  contrary,  the  forces 
of  all  the  East  are  arrayed  on  the  Trojan  side 
as  allies,  so  far  as  they  are  mentioned  at  all. 

Professor  Jebb,  with  many  other  scholars,  is 
confident  that  these  colonies  took  with  them  to 
Asia  the  Homeric  poems — not,  to  be  sure,  in  their 


42      The  Successors  of  Homer. 

present  form,  but  in  an  advanced  stage  of  their 
development.  This  does  not  necessarily  antago- 
nize the  prevailing  ancient  belief,  that  "  Homer  " 
was  a  native  of  Asia — Smyrna,  Chios,  and  Colo- 
phon being,  perhaps,  the  foremost  claimants  as 
his  mother-city.  The  name  Homer  may  be 
assigned,  perhaps,  to  the  later  epic  artist  who 
gave  the  Iliad  its  present  general  form.  Such 
episodes  as  those  of  Glaucos  and  Sarpedon  are 
thought  to  show  most  clearly  Asiatic  origin  and 
local  pride.  Yet  the  Olympian  abode  of  gods 
and  Muses,  the  birth  of  Achilles  in  Phthia, 
with  many  minor  indications,  certainly  point  to 
Thessaly  as  the  earliest  home  of  "  Homeric  "  epic. 

Colonies  often  have  a  more  rapid  growth  to 
wealth  and  culture  than  the  parent -land. 
Miletos,  Smyrna,  Samos,  far  outstripped  the 
mother-cities  of  Greece.  Whatever  we  think  of 
Homer,  certainly  the  later  Cyclic  Epic,  literary 
lyric,  and  early  philosophy  all  arose  chiefly  in 
Asia  Minor. 

Now,  Hesiod  is  doubly  interesting  as  the  first 
Greek  poet  of  whose  localized  existence  we  have 
authentic  knowledge,  and,  further,  from  the  fact 


The  Works  and  Days.         43 

that  he  represents  a  back-current  of  Asiatic 
culture,  returning  to  the  comparatively  rude, 
primeval,  undeveloped  mother-land.  The  per- 
sonality of  the  Homeric  poet  or  poets  evades  us 
completely.  Hesiod,  a  homely  unheroic  figure, 
is  naively  and  plainly  revealed  to  us,  dwelling 
in  his  humble  village  home  at  Boeotian  Ascra. 

The  ancient  lives  of  Hesiod  are  for  the  most 
part,  like  those  of  Homer,  silly  and  contradictory 
fabrications.  Their  few  trustworthy  details  they 
gleaned,  as  we  may  do,  almost  wholly  from  his 
pastoral  poem,  the  Works  and  Days  C^pya  koi 
'H/Jiipai),  that  is,  "  Ptustic  Tasks,  and  a  Calendar 
of  fit  and  unfit  days  for  their  performance." 
Hesiod's  father  had  emigrated  back  to  Ascra, 
under  Mount  Helicon,  from  Kjtqc,  in  North- 
western Asia  IVIinor  (a  town  doubly  illustrious — 
on  the  one  hand  as  the  especial  legatee  of  Trojan 
myth  and  stock,  and  on  the  other  as  the  parent 
of  Cumae,  oldest  of  Greek  colonies  in  Italy). 

"  Ascra,  in  Winter  vile,  most  villainous 
In  Summer,  and  at  no  time  glorious," 

the   unfilial    poet    calls    the   village   which   was 


44      The  Successors  of  Homer. 

probably  his  birthplace.  Strabo,  to  be  sure,  says 
Hesiod  was  born  in  Kyme  before  this  return  of 
his  family.  This  is,  however,  contradicted  in  our 
present  text,  at  ver.  650,  where  the  poet  says  he 
never  went  to  sea.  We  shall  return  to  this 
passage  {infra,  p.  71). 

Of  his  life  as  a  shepherd  on  Helicon,  where 
the  Muses  appear  to  him,  we  have  a  pleasing 
glimpse  in  the  companion-poem,  the  Theogony. 
The  nine  sisters  put  in  his  hand  a  branch  of 
laurel,  and  bid  him  sing  the  race  of  the  gods 
immortal.  Though  no  voyager,  he  seems  to  have 
wandered  widely  by  land.  In  Locris,  and  again 
in  Orchomenos,  his  tomb  was  shown — a  curious 
pendant  to  the  many  claimants  for  Homer's 
birthplace. 

Herodotos,  in  a  famous  chapter  (bk.  ii.  §  53), 
mentions  Hesiod  and  Homer  together  (putting 
Hesiod  first),  and  says  he  judges  they  lived  four 
hundred  years,  "and  not  more,"  before  his  time. 
Hesiod  is,  however,  undoubtedly  later  than 
Homer,  whom  he  often  imitates ;  and  this  opinion 
of  Herodotos,  pointing  to  the  latter  half  of  the 
ninth  century  B.C.,  probably  indicates  somewhat 


The  Works  and  Days.         45 

too  early  a  date  for  Hesiod.  Still  his  metre  and 
dialect  show  that  he  is  yet  under  the  epic  influ- 
ence only.  Now,  Ionian  lyric  arose  as  a  literary 
art  early  in  the  seventh  century  B.C.,  and  one 
of  the  earliest  lyric  poets,  Simonides  of  Amorgos, 
has  plainly  copied  Hesiod.  The  passage  is  a 
proverbial  one  in  tone,  it  is  true,  but  the  words 
are  so  nearly  the  same  that  it  appears  to  be 
merely  a  conscious  recasting  of  Hesiod's  thought 
in  the  new  iambic  metre,  Hesiod  had  said,  in 
dactyls, — 

"  Never  a  man  hath  won  him  a  nobler  prize  than  a  woman — 
If  she  be  good;  but,  again,  there  is  naught  else  worse  than 
a  bad  one." 

And  Simonides  echoes — 

"  Naught  better  than  a  woman  one  can  win, 
If  she  be  noble  ;  but,  if  bad,  naught  worse." 

These  data  may  fix,  approximately,  the  poet's  age. 
A  rather  belated  and  second-rate  epic  poet  of 
about  the  eighth  century  B.C.,  then,  Hesiod  has 
stni  a  unique  charm.  He  gives  us  our  first 
glimpse  of  humble  village  life  in  that  sequestered 


l^ 


46      The  Successors  of  Homer. 

Boeotian  laud  from  which  Pindar  and  Plutarch 
■were  also  to  spring  in  later  centuries.  Both  his 
chief  poems  have  come  down  to  us  in  unsatis- 
factory condition.  I  shall  try  to  give  as  full  an 
outline  of  them  as  is  possible  in  brief  space, 
especially  illustrating  the  sudden  and  ungraceful 
transitions  and  gaps  between  the  parts.  In  some 
cases  this  may  indicate  mere  rustic  awkwardness. 
In  other  passages  the  attempt  has  probably  been 
made,  chiefly  by  later  hands,  to  dovetail  into  the 
larger  frame  complete  independent  poems,  hymns, 
etc.,  or  striking  fragments  thereof,  which  may 
often  really  belong  to  Hesiod  or  his  school,  but 
not  to  their  present  places,  where  they  fit — as 
the  Germans  say — "  like  a  fist  on  the  eye  "  ! 

The  poem  commonly  known  as  the  "  Works 
and  Days  "  is  dedicated,  or  largely  devoted,  to 
Hesiod's  ungracious  brother  Perses,  who,  by 
bribery  of  the  judges,  had  secured  the  lion's 
share  in  the  family  patrimony.  He  is,  however, 
again  reduced  by  indolence  and  folly  to  utter 
poverty,  and  has  appealed  for  help  to  the  more 
prosperous  poet.  The  latter  had  nothing  to  be- 
stow on  his  kinsman  save  caustic  and  comfortless 


The  Works  and  Days.         47 

advice.  The  jerkiest  turns  of  the  verse  are 
when,  from  time  to  time,  it  occurs  to  the  loving 
brother  that  it  is  time  to  admonish  Perses 
once  more. 

The  very  first  ten  lines  may  be  an  independent 
hymn,  perhaps,  to  Zeus.     The  poem  opens  thus — 

"Muses   who   came  from  Pieria,  giving  renown   by  your 

singing, 
Come  ye,  and  tell  us  of  Zeus,  and  chant  to  the  praise  of 

the  Father : 
His,  who  to  mortal  men  has  apportioned  fame  or  oblivion  ; 
Named  or  nameless  are  they  by  the   will  of  Zeus   the 

eternal "  (Works  and  Days,  vers.  1-4). 

Indeed  this  might  well  find  a  place  among  the 
Homeric  Hymns,  where  only  one  brief  poem 
is  actually  dedicated  to  Zeus,  though  we  are 
positively  told,  by  so  early  and  eminent  authority 
as  Pindar,  that  such  preludes  were  oftenest  com- 
posed in  his  honour.     But  from — 

''  Zeus  who  thunders  on  high,  in  his  lofty  palace  abiding  " 

(Ibid.,  ver.  8), 

Hesiod  suddenly  turns  away — 


48      The  Successors  of  Homer. 

"Hearken  and  heed  and  behold,  and  righteously  govern  thy 
judgments, 
Thou:   but  I  unto  Perses  would  utter   a  word   that  is 
truthful !  "  (Ibid.,  vers.  9, 10). 

Yet  the  admonition,  when  it  comes,  is  but  a 
rather  metaphysical  discussion  upon  the  two 
sorts  of  strife  or  contention — noble  Emulation 
and  base  Jealousy,  Both  are  personified,  in  true 
Greek  fashion,  and  sisters ;  elder  and  younger 
daughters  of  Night.  No  trait  was,  indeed,  more 
familiar  in  Hellenic  character  than  jealousy.  It 
is  the  one  baser  alloy  constantly  touched  on  even 
in  Pindar's  golden  songs  of  praise.  Pindar,  him- 
self, was  evidently  kept  awake  by  the  rustling 
laurels  of  Simonides.  As  Hesiod  says  pre- 
sently— 

"  Even  the  potter   is  jealous  of  potter,  and  craftsman   of 
craftsman ; 
Even  the  beggar  is  grudging  to  beggar,  and  poet  to  poet ! " 
(Ibid.,  vers.  25,  2G.) 

This  last  passage  is  quoted  by  Plato,  and  re- 
peatedly by  Aristotle.  The  fraternal  sermon 
runs  on — 


The  Works  and  Days.         49 

"But  do  thou  store  these   lessons   away  in  thy  memory, 
Perses ! 
Let  not  Contention,  the  lover  of  mischief,  withhold  thee 

from  labour, 
While  in  the  market-place  thou  art  hearkening,  eager  for 
quarrels"  (Ibid.,  vers.  27-29). 

"...  Once  we  our  heritage  shared  already.     Cajoling  the 

rulers, 
Men  who  were  greedy  for  bribes,  and  were  willing  to  grant 

you  the  judgment, 
You  then  plundered  and  carried  away  far  more  than  your 

portion. 
Fools  were  they,  imaware  how  the  whole  by  a  half  is 


Little  they  know  how  great  is  the  blessing  with  mallow 
and  lentils"  (Ibid.,  vers.  37-41). 

This  last  is  the  typical  food  of  the  poor  and 
of  rustics.  Lovers  of  Horace  will  remember  these 
greens  as  his  favourite  food — save  when  invited 
to  Maecenas'  banquets, — and  Herrick  is  equally 
sincere  in  his  devotion  to  the — 

"  mess 
Of  water-cress." 

But  it  must  be  confessed  these  dainties  are  here 
forced  rather  suddenly,  and  awkwardly,  upon  the 


50      The  Successors  of  Homer. 

corrupt  judges.     Yet  a  still  bolder  turn  is  at  hand. 
Hesiod  continues — 

"Truly  the  gods   keep  hid   from   mortals  the  means   of 

existence : 
Else,  in  a  single  day,  thou  well  might'st  win  by  thy  labour 
What  would  sufSce  for  a  year,  although  thou  idle  remainest. 
Ended  soon  were  the  labours  of  toilsome  mules  and  of 

oxen  "  (Ibid.,  vers.  42-46). 

This  pessimistic  and  ignoble  opinion  of  the 
gods  introduces,  naturally  enough,  the  tale  of 
Prometheus'  deceitful  sacrifice,  and  of  Zeus' 
consequent  wrath.  The  theft  of  fire — which  had 
been  withheld  to  punish  man — is  merely  touched 
on,  and  the  story  (which  is  here  hardly  more 
relevant),  of  Pandora,  with  her  fatal  curiosity,  is 
told  in  full  detail.  That  Hesiod  invented  the 
entire  story  is  unlikely,  but  this  is  its  first  ap-  ^ 
pearance  in  extant  literature.  In  offering  a  ren- 
dering of  the  passage,  no  attempt  can  be  made 
to  discuss  questions  of  "  interpolation,"  "  double 
redaction,"  etc. 

"  Zeus,  in  the  wrath  of  his  heart,  hath  hidden  the  means  of 
subsistence, — 
Wrathful  because  he  once  was  deceived  by  the  wily  Pro- 
metheus. 


The  Works  and  Days.         51 

Th'Tcforc  it  was  he  devised  most   grievous  troubles  for 

mortals. 
Fire  he  hid :  yet  that,  for  men,  did  the  gallant  Prometheus 
Steal,  in  a  hollov?  reed,  from  the  dwelling  of  Zeus  the 

Adviser, 
Nor  was  he  seen  by  the  ruler  of  gods,  who  delights  in  the 

thunder. 
Then,  in  his  rage  at  the  deed,  cloud-gathering  Zeus  did 

address  him : 
'  lapetionides,  in  cunning  greater  than  any, 
Thou  in  the  theft  of  fire  and  deceit  of  me  art  exulting, 
— Source  of  regret  for  thyself,  and  for  men  who  shall  be 

hereafter. 
I,  in  the  place  of  fire,  will  give  them  a  bane,  so  that  all 

men 
May  in  spirit  exult,  and  find  in  their  misery  comfort ! ' 
Speaking  thus,  loud  laughed  he,  the  father  of  gods  and  of 

mortals. 
Then  he  commanded  Hephaistos,  the  cunning   artificer, 

straightway 
Mixing  water  and  earth,  with  speech  and  force  to  endow  it, 
Making  it  like  in  face  to  the  gods  whose  life  is  eternal. 
Virginal,  winning,  and  fair  was  the  shape :  and  he  ordered 

Athene 
Skilful  devices  to  teach  her,  the  beautiful  works  of  the 

weaver. 
Then  did  he  bid  Aphrodite  the  golden  endow  her  with 

beauty. 
Eager  desire,   and  passion  that  wasteth    the   bodies  of 

mortals. 


52      The  Successors  of  Homer. 

Hermes,  guider  of  men,  the  destroyer  of  Argus,  he  or- 
dered, 
Lastly,  a  shameless  mind  to  bestow,  and  a  treacherous 

nature. 
So  did  he  speak.     They  obeyed  lord  Zeus,  who  is  offspring 

of  Kronos. 
Straightway,   out   of   the   earth,   the  renowned  artificer 

fashioned 
One  like  a  shame-faced  maid,  at  the  will  of  the  ruler  of 

Heaven. 
Girdle  and    ornaments   added    the   bright-eyed    goddess 

Athene. 
Over  her  body  the  Graces  divine  and  noble  Persuasion 
Hung  their  golden  chains ;  and  the  Hours  with  beautiful 

tresses 
Wove  her  garlands  of  flowers  that  bloom  in  the  season  of 

springtime. 
All  her  adornment  Pallas  Athene  fitted  upon  her. 
Into  her  bosom,  Hermes  the  guide,  the  destroyer  of  Argus, 
Falsehood,  treacherous  thoughts,  and  a   thievish  nature 

imparted  : 
Such  was  the  bidding  of  Zeus  who  heavily  thunders  ;  and, 

lastly, 
Hermes,  herald  of  gods,  endowed  her  with  si^eech,  and  the 

woman 
Named  Pandora,  because  all  gods  who  dwell  in  Olymjios 
Gave  her  presents,  to  make  her  a  fatal  bane  unto  mortals. 
When  now  Zeus  had  finished  this  snare  so  deadly  and 

certain. 
Famous  Argus  slayer,  the  herald  of  gods,  he  commanded, 


The  Works  and  Days.         53 

Leading  her  thence,  as  a  gift  to  bestow  her  ujwn  Epimctheus. 
He,  then,  failed  to  remember  Prometheus  had  bidden  him 

never 
Gifts  to  accept  from  Olympian  Zeus,  but  still  to  return 

them 
Straightway,  lest  some  evil  befall  thereby  unto  mortals. 
So  he  received  her, — and  then,  when  the  evil  befell,  he 

remembered. 

"Till  that  time,  upon  earth  were  dwelling  the  races  of 
mortals, 

Free  and  secure  from  trouble,  and  free  from  wearisome 
labour ; 

Safe  from  painful  diseases  that  bring  mankind  to  destruction 

(Since  full  swiftly  in  misery  age  unto  mortals  approacheth). 

Now,  with  her  hands.  Pandora  the  great  lid  raised  from 
the  vessel. 

Letting  them  loose:  and  grievous  the  evil  for  men  she 
provided. 

Hope  yet  lingered,  alone,  in  the  dwelling  securely  im- 
prisoned. 

Since  she  under  the  edge  of  the  lid  had  tarried,  and  flew 
not 

Forth :   too    soon  Pandora  had  fastened   the  lid  of    the 


Such  was  the  will  of  Zeus,  cloud-gatherer,  lord  of  the  aegis. 
Numberless  evils  beside  to  the  haunts  of  men  had  de- 
parted, 
Full  is  the  earth  of  ills,  and  full  no  less  are  the  waters. 
Freely  diseases  among  mankind,  by  day  and  in  darkness. 


54      The  Successors  of  Homer. 

Hither  and  thither  may  pass,  and  bring  much  woe  upon 

mortals : 
— Voiceless,  since  of  speech  high-counselling   Zeus   has 

bereft  them  "  (Ibid.,  vers.  47-104). 

The  great  fame  of  the  myth  will  justify  such 
a  complete  transcription  from  this  its  earliest 
form.  Old  as  the  passage  is,  its  fragmentary 
and  discordant  details  indicate  that  it  is  a  crude 
attempt  to  unite  several  diverse  legends  already 
in  circulation.  One  feature  of  the  myth  which 
has  doubtless  puzzled  us  all  is.  Whence  came 
the  strange  jar  containing  all  woes  for  men  ? 
Though  Homer  apparently  knows  nothing  of 
Pandora,  he  perhaps  supplies  an  answer  to  this 
question.  It  is  in  a  famous  scene  of  II.  xxiv., 
where  Achilles,  himself  weary  of  life,  is  preaching 
resignation  to  his  unwelcome  guest,  the  heart- 
broken Priam.  The  gods  make  men's  life  bitter, 
though  they  themselves  are  secure  from  trouble, 
says  Achilles ; — 

"  Yea,  for  indeed  two  jars  in  the  palace  of  Zeus  arc  standing, 
One  of   the  evil   gifts  they  bestow,   and  the  other  of 

blessings. 
He  that  receives  them  commingled,  from  Zeus  who  delights 

in  the  thunder, 


The  Works  and  Days.         55 

Chances    at   times   upon   ill,   and   again  at  times   upon 

blessings. 
He  who  receives  but  the  troubles,  him  Zeus  makes  utterly 

wretched." 

Some  have  fancied  Pandora  was  allowed  to  bring 
this  jar  of  ills  (or,  perhaps,  a  vessel  filled  from 
it  ?)  as  an  unwelcome  dower. 

The  mention  of  Hope,  as  still  imprisoned,  is 
doubtless  a  peculiarly  pessimistic  touch,  Hope, 
the  deluder,  is  herself  a  bane,  the  poet  says — 
or  would  be,  if  existent  at  all  among  men.  For 
this,  and  this  alone,  Hesiod  thanks  Mother 
Pandora, — that  she  shut  the  lid  before  this 
miscliief  could  flit  forth  into  the  world.  Modern 
versions,  down  to  Longfellow's  "  Pandora  "  and 
Hawthorne's  "  Wonder  -  book,"  teach  otherwise  ; 
indeed,  Aeschylos,  in  his  Prometheus,  distinctly 
rejects  tliis  view  of  Hope;  but  such  seems  to 
be  Hesiod's  thought.  Pandora  is  not  without 
charm,  as  she  stands  forth, — 

"Garlanded  by  the  fair- tressed  Hours  with  the  blossoms 
of  springtime ; " 

but  so  many  later  myth-makers  and  poets  have 
reshaped  and  newly  adorned  her,  that  the  original 


54      The  Successors  of  Homer. 

Hither  and  thither  may  pass,  and  bring  much  woe  upon 

mortals : 
— Voiceless,  since  of  speech  high-counselling   Zeus   has 

bereft  them  "  (Ibid.,  vers.  47-104). 

The  great  fame  of  the  myth  will  justify  such 
a  complete  transcription  from  this  its  earliest 
form.  Old  as  the  passage  is,  its  fragmentary 
and  discordant  details  indicate  that  it  is  a  crude 
attempt  to  unite  several  diverse  legends  already 
in  circulation.  One  feature  of  the  myth  which 
has  doubtless  puzzled  us  all  is.  Whence  came 
the  strange  jar  containing  all  woes  for  men  ? 
Though  Homer  apparently  knows  nothing  of 
Pandora,  he  perhaps  supplies  an  answer  to  this 
question.  It  is  in  a  famous  scene  of  II.  xxiv., 
where  Achilles,  himself  weary  of  life,  is  preaching 
resignation  to  his  unwelcome  guest,  the  heart- 
broken Priam.  The  gods  make  men's  life  bitter, 
though  they  themselves  are  secure  from  trouble, 
says  Achilles ; — 

"  Yea,  for  indeed  two  jars  in  the  palace  of  Zeus  are  standing, 
One  of   the  evil   gifts  they   bestow,   and  the  other  of 


He  that  receives  them  commingled,  from  Zeus  who  delights 
in  the  thunder, 


The  Works  and  Days.         55 

Chances    at   times   upon  ill,   and   again  at  times   upon 

blessings. 
He  wlio  receives  but  the  troubles,  him  Zeus  makes  utterly 

wretched." 

Some  have  fancied  Pandora  was  allowed  to  bring 
this  jar  of  ills  (or,  perhaps,  a  vessel  filled  from 
it  ?)  as  an  unwelcome  dower. 

The  mention  of  Hope,  as  still  imprisoned,  is 
doubtless  a  peculiarly  pessimistic  touch.  Hope, 
the  deluder,  is  herself  a  bane,  the  poet  says — 
or  would  be,  if  existent  at  all  among  men.  For 
this,  and  this  alone,  Hesiod  thanks  Mother 
Pandora, — that  she  shut  the  lid  before  this 
mischief  could  flit  forth  into  the  world.  Modern 
versions,  down  to  Longfellow's  "  Pandora "  and 
Hawthorne's  "  Wonder  -  book,"  teach  otherwise  ; 
indeed,  Aeschylos,  in  his  Prometheus,  distinctly 
rejects  tliis  view  of  Hope;  but  such  seems  to 
be  Hesiod's  thought.  Pandora  is  not  without 
charm,  as  she  stands  forth, — 

"  Garlanded  by  the  fair-tressed  Hours  with  the  blossoms 
of  springtime ; " 

but  so  many  later  myth-makers  and  poets  have 
reshaped  and  newly  adorned  her,  that  the  original 


58      The  Successors  of  Homer. 

Quite  iin-Homeric  is  the  belief  that  the  folk 
of  this  earliest  or  golden  age,  after  a  long  life 
of  hale  and  painless  vigour,  falling  on  death  as 
on  a  pleasant  sleep,  become  daemones,  (^alfxoveg,) 
wandering  over  the  earth,  the  kindly  guardians 
of  living  men.  This  faith  in  guardian  angels 
reappears  from  time  to  time :  strikingly  in 
Plato,  and  also  in  Horace  (Epist.  ii.  i.  144  and 
II.  ii.  187-189),  where  every  human  soul  at  birth 
receives  such  a  protector,  his  genius ;  but  it  is 
especially  familiar  to  us,  of  course,  as  a  Hebrew 
and  Oriental;  belief.  Such  a  faith  is,  doubtless, 
in  varying  forms,  as  extended  as  the  dwellings 
of  humanity.  It  does  not,  however,  appear  to 
have  been  a  very  wide-spread  popular  belief 
among  the  Greeks.  Moreover,  as  early  as 
Empedocles,  the  philosophers  began  ascribing 
to  the  daemones  those  superhuman  actions  which 
could  not  be  defended  as  the  deeds  of  virtuous  and 
wise  gods.  This,  in  the  hands  of  later  Christian 
assailants,  finally  gave  the  word  the  utterly  evil 
significance  still  attaching  to  "demon,"  "demo- 
niacal," etc. ;  while  "  daemon  "  and  "  daemonic  " 
would  fain  revert  to  the  nobler  connotation. 


The  Works  and  Days.         59 

In  the  second,  or  silvern  age,  men  had  the 
doubtful  boon  of  a  childhood  one  hundred  years 
long,  spent  at  their  mother's  side,  followed  by- 
briefer  and  troublous  maturity.  This  folk  was 
finally  swept  away  altogether  by  Zeus,  for 
neglect  of  sacrifice. 

"Still,  when   this  race  also  had  under  the  ground   been 
hidden, 
They,  underneath  our  earth,  though  mortals,  are  known 

as  the  blessed. 
Second,  indeed,  yet  honour  to  them  is  also  accorded." 

(Ibid.,  vers.  140-142.) 

It  is  quite  worth  noting,  that  the  nobler 
golden  race  still  dwell  in  the  goodly  sunshine 
of  our  world, — a  greater  boon,  to  the  Greek 
mind,  than  any  unearthly  Elysium,  "  or  casual 
hope  of  being  elsewhere  blest,"  Without  doubt 
Hesiod  would  have  echoed  Achilles'  bitter  word, 
uttered  in  Persephone's  realm,  which  so  shocked 
Plato  :— 

"  Verily  I  would  have  chosen  to  live  as  the  serf  of  another, 
Yea,  of  a  needy  man,  who  had  but  a  scanty  subsistence. 
Than  to  be  sovran  here  over  all  who  are  dead  and  departed." 

(Odys.  xi.) 


60      The  Successors  of  Homer. 

The  third  age,  of  bronze,  took  its  name,  partly 
at  least,  from  the  metal  used  in  its  utensils 
and  arms. 

"Brazen  the  warlike   gear  they  wore,   and  brazen  their 
dwellings. 
Bronze  it  was  they  wrought :  not  yet  black  iron  existed." 
(Works  and  Days,  vers.  150,  151.) 

Moreover,  this,  as  also  the  last  and  con- 
temporary age,  that  of  iron,  corresponds  exactly 
to  what  is  now  archaeologically  established  as 
to  the  development  of  the  arts  among  many 
races.  Hesiod,  however,  considers  it  all  a  story 
of  constant  deterioration — with  one  important 
exception. 

Between  the  bronze  and  iron  ages  he  finds 
place  for  a  fourth,  more  just  and  more  noble 
than  either.  These  are  the  heroes  or  demigods, 
and  he  especially  mentions  the  two  great  sieges 
in  which  most  of  them  perished :  about  seven- 
gated  Thebes  and  Priam's  citadel.  As  they 
were  nobler  in  life  than  their  predecessors,  so 
their  after-destiny  is  brighter.  The  men  of 
bronze,  slain  by  each  other's  violent  hands,  passed 
down  to  Hades,  leaving  the  bright  sunlight,  and — 


The  Works  and  Days.         61 

perhaps  worst  of  all — are  nameless  for  evermore. 
But  the  later  heroes  are  set  by  Zeus  on  the 
bounds  of  earth. 

"  There,  by  the  eddying  Ocean,  they  dwell  in  the  Isles  of 
the  Blessed  "  (Ibid.,  ver.  171). 

Whence  arose  this  belief  in  the  Happy  Isles, 
where  thrice  a  year  the  bounteous  harvest  ripens, 
is  not  easy  to  guess.  For  us  they  fitly  typify 
the  calm,  stormless  islands  of  Homeric  j)oesy  in 
which  Achilles,  Helen,  Priam,  and  the  rest  abide 
in  eternal  majesty.  No  doubt  Hesiod  himself 
was  more  or  less  consciously  diverted  from  his 
current  of  pessimistic  invention  by  the  glorifying 
genius  of  the  Homeric  poets,  illuminating  the 
century  just  before  his  time.  The  very  incon- 
sistency of  the  passage  with  its  pessimistic 
environment  seems  to  stamp  Hesiod  as  a  true, 
if  reluctant,  Homerid ! 

These  four  or  five  races  Hesiod  probably  re- 
garded as  each  a  separate  creation  or  growth,  not 
as  descended  one  from  another.  His  own  folk 
is  apparently  doomed  to  annihilation  no  less 
than  the  others. 


^2       The  Successors  of  Homer. 

"  Zeus  shall  yet  destroy  this  race  of  humanity  also, 
When,  from  the  hour  of  their  birth,  they  appear  gray- 
haired  on  the  temples  "  (Ibid.,  vers.  180, 181). 

Some  have  thought  this  a  picturesque  way  of 
declaring  men  would  never  perish  from  the  earth. 
But  youthtime  is,  to  a  Greek,  the  flower  of  life, 
and  the  degeneration  from  the  century-long 
childhood  of  the  silver  age  is  to  be  complete, 
when  even  the  new-born  infant  shows  the  marks 
of  exhausted  vigour.  And  there  is  quite  as 
much  truth  as  poetry  deeply  imbedded  here. 
Alas  for  that  race  which  crowds  out  the  careless 
merriment,  the  leisurely  enjoyment  of  the  passing 
hour,  which  should  characterize  the  early  years 
of  Hfe ! 

Hesiod  becomes  as  stern  and  majestic  as  a 
Hebrew  prophet,  while  he  tells  how  perjury  and 
treachery,  insolence  to  parents  and  to  gods,  and 
universal  envy  shall  increase.     At  last — 

"  Verily  then  will  depart   from  the  wide-wayed   earth  to 
Olympos, — 
Wrapping  about  in  robes  of  white  their  beautiful  figures, 
Leaving  humankind,  to  abide  with  the  race  of  immortals, — 
Shame  and  Vengeance." 


The  Works  and  Days.         63 

By  the  apologue  of  the  hawk  and  the  night- 
ingale, Hesiod  next  illustrates  the  abhorrent 
doctrine  that  physical  might  makes  right.  The 
sweet-voiced  bird,  rather  than  the  familiar  dove, 
was  perhaps  chosen  in  allusion  to  the  poet 
himself  in  the  clutches  of  the  unjust  judges. 
This  is  the  first  appearance  of  the  animal-fable 
in  Hellenic  literature. 

In  the  eulogy  of  Justice,  which  next  follows, 
she  is  personified  as  the  dear  daughter  of  Zeus, 
and  her  seat  is  close  beside  his  throne.  Punish- 
ing a  whole  race,  if  need  be,  for  its  ruler's  sin, 
she  bestows  prosperity  and  abundant  increase 
upon  righteous  nations.  So,  he  adds,  they  have 
no  need  to  voyage  abroad,  since  the  bounteous 
earth  provides  them  of  its  crops !  This  notion, 
that  foreign  travel  and  trade  are  impious, 
occurs  in  Horace, — not  to  mention  much  later 
men! 

The  sermon,  or  admonition,  has  been  heavily 
loaded  with  aphorisms  and  maxims  not  closely 
connected  with  each  other.  A  nobler  morality 
than  elsewhere  in  the  poem  appears  in  such  lines 
as : — 


64       The  Successors  of  Homer. 

"  Evil  he  worketh  himself  who  worketh  ill  to  another." 

(Ibid.,  ver.  265.) 

And  as  sloth  is  a  form  of  injustice,  the  poem  now 
stoops  from  heavenly  themes,  though  still  not 
without  grace,  to  the  need  of  industry,  especially 
for  the  husbandman. 

"...    But  remembering  still  my  injunction, 
Work,  oh  Perses,  sprung  from  the  gods,  that  Famine  may 

ever 
Hate  you,  and  dear  may  you  be  to  Demeter,  of  beautiful 


Awesome  one,  and  still  may  she  fill  thy  garner  with  plenty." 
(Ibid.,  vers.  298-301.) 

We  have  now  just  reached  the  three  hundredth 
line,  and  here  the  poem  divides  into  many  ill- 
connected  verses  and  groups  of  lines,  akin  indeed 
in  general  scope,  as  a  river  is  divided  to  irrigate 
many  fields.  The  maxims  strung  together  here 
would  be  as  helpful  to  Perses  as  to  any  other 
rustic,  no  doubt. 

For  a  score  of  lines  the  word  apyov,  work,  is 
repeated  with  its  derivatives  and  synonyms  in 
most  tedious  iteration,  thus  : — 


The  Works  and  Days.         65 

'*  Work  is  no  disgrace,  but  the  shame  is,  not  to  be  working  ; 
If  you  but  work,  then  he  who  works  not  will  envy  you 

quickly. 
Seeing  your  wealth  increase :  with  wealth  come  honour 

and  glory  "  (Ibid.,  vers.  311-313). 

From  such  general  exhortations  to  justice  and 
industry  we  pass  to  more  and  more  practical 
maxims, 

•'  Summon  the  man  who  loves  thee  to  banquet :  thy  enemy 
bid  not. 
Summon  him  most  of  all  who  dwells  most  closely  beside 

thee. 
Since,  if  aught  that  is  strange  or  evil  chance  to  befall  thee, 
Neighbours  come  ungirt,  but  kinsmen  wait  to  be  girded." 
(Ibid.,  vers.  342-345.) 

"  — Take  your  fill  when  the  cask  is  broached  and  when  it  is 
failing. 
Midway  spare:  at  the  lees  'tis  not   worth   while  to  be 
sparing  "  (Ibid.,  vers.  368,  3G9). 

There  is  much  wisdom  in  the  advice  to — 

*'  Call,  with  a  smile,  for  a  witness,  although  'tis  your  brother 
you  deal  with  "  (Ibid.,  ver.  371). 

We  know  what  bitter  experience  had  taught  him 
this.  Even  more  gloomy  is  the  remark  a  few  lines 
later ; — 


66       The  Successors  of  Homer. 

"  Let  there  be  one  son  only,  to  guard  the  estate  of  his  father." 

(Ibid,,  ver.  376). 

At  ver.  368  the  definite  instructions  for 
farmers  commence : — 

"  When  the  Pleiades,  the  daughters  of  Atlas,  are  rising. 
Then  begin  your  harvest :  the  ploughing  when  they  are 
setting  "  (Ibid.,  vers.  383,  384). 

From  this  point,  in  a  fairly  connected  fashion, 
the  tasks  of  the  successive  seasons  are  discussed 
down  to  ver.  617.  The  last  three  or  four  lines, 
indeed,  are  a  mere  repetition  of  the  advice  to 
plough  when  the  Pleiades  set.  Whether  these 
closing  verses  are  a  late  addition  or  not,  the 
calendar  for  the  circling  year  is  there  completed. 

These  two  hundred  and  tliirty-nine  lines,  then, 
are  the  core  of  the  poem,  from  which  it  takes  its 
name.  Some  very  general  and  quaint  advice  is 
given  : — 

"  Get  thee  a  dwelling  first,  and  a  woman,  and  ox  for  the 
Ijloughing  "  (Ibid.,  ver.  405). 

This  verse   is  twice   quoted  by  Aristotle,  and  as 
he  took  the  "  woman,"  (yvvtuKa,)  for  wife,  it  is 


The  Works  and  Days.         67 

thought  a  mischievous  hand,  since  liis  day,  has 
interpolated  the  strange  following  verse  : — 

"  — Buy  thou  a  woman,  not  wed  her,  that  she  may  follow 
theoxea"(Ibid.,  ver.  406). 

If,  as  often  elsewhere,  this  last  phrase  here 
meant  "  guide  the  ploughshare,"  that  is  a  fitter 
task  for  a  strong  mature  man,  and  is  carefully  so 
assigned  only  thirty  lines  later  : — 

"  After  them  there  should  follow  a  vigorous  ploughman  of 
forty, 
When  he  has  eaten  a  quartern  loaf,  eight  slices,  for  break- 
fast" (Ibid.,  vers.  441,  442). 

But  there  are  also  very  detailed  hints,  as  upon 
the  exact  size  of  timber :  three  feet  long  for  a 
mortar,  three  cubits  for  a  pestle,  seven  feet  for  an 
axletree.  The  advice  to  make  the  share-beam  of 
oak,  ploughtail  of  ilex,  poles  of  bay  or  elm,  may 
remind  us  of  the  carefully  selected  woods  for  the 
Deacon's  "  One-Hoss  Shay : " — 

"  The  hubs  of  logs  from  the  '  settler's  ellum,' — 
Last  of  its  timber, — they  couldn't  sell  'em. 
The  panels  of  whitewood,  that  cuts  like  cheese, 
Put  lasts  like  iron  for  things  like  these," 


68       The  Successors  of  Homer. 

Professor  Jebb  calls  attention  to  the  charm 
often  given  to  passages  in  our  poem  by  the 
mention  of  birds,  they  and  the  stars  being  the 
commonest  marks  of  time  in  the  calendar  of  the 
rural  year. 

"  Thou  must  be  mindful,  too,  when  the  voice  of  the  crane 

thou  hearest 
Utter  its  annual  cry  from  out  of  the  clouds  above  thee. 
She  brings  signals  for  ploughing,  and  heralds  the  season  of 

winter"  (Ibid.,  vers.  448-450). 

Or  again : — 

"  This  shall  the  remedy  be,  if  thou  art  belated  in  ploughing. 
When  in  the  leaves  of  the  oak  is  heard  the  voice  of  the 

cuckoo, 
First,  that  across  the  unbounded  earth  brings  pleasure  to 

mortals, 
Three  days  long  let  Zeus  pour  down  his  rain  without 

ceasing. 
So  that  it  fills  the  oxhoofs  print,  yet  not  overflows  it. 
Then  may  the  ploughman  belated  be  equal  with  hira  who 

was  timely  "  (Ibid.,  vers.  485-490). 

That  is,  if  you  do  put  off  your    ploughing    till 
spring,  choose  a  wet  week  for  it. 

A  touch   that  reminds  us  how  like  is  human 
nature  in  Boeotia  or  Berkshire,  may  be  rendered : — 


The  Works  and  Days.         69 

"  Pass  by  the  seat  at  the  forge,  and  the  well- warmed  tavern 
in  winter. 
.     .     .    That  is  the  time  when  a  man  not  slothful  increases 
his  substance  "  (Ibid.,  vers.  493-495). 

The  cruel  doctrine  of  early  rising  has,  of  course, 
an  honoured  place  : — 

"  Shun  thou  seats  in  the  shade,  nor  sleep  till  the  daum,  in 
the  season 
When  it  is  harvest-time,  and  your  skin  is  parched  in  the 
sunshine"  (Ibid.,  vers.  474,  475). 

Honest  servants  seem  not  to  have  been  the 
unfailing  rule  even  in  these  olden  days.  A  hint 
upon  pilfering  underlies  the  advice, — 

"  Seek  thou  a  homeless  thrall,  and  a  serving-maid  who  is 
childless  "  (Ibid.,  ver.  602). 

For  the  benefit  of  the  tramp,  sleeping  by  day 
to  plunder  by  night — for  there  is  no  new  thing 
under  the  sun,  at  least  in  human  nature — Hesiod 
advises — 

"  Keep  thou  a  sharp-toothed  dog  !  "  * 

(Ibid.,  ver.  604.) 

*  The  mysterious  inscription  in  Rudder  Grange  illustrates 
this. 


70       The  Successors  of  Homer. 

The  last  and  pleasantest  task  of  the  circling 
year  is  the  vintage.  The  grapes,  dried  ten  days 
in  sun  and  five  in  shade,  are  then  to  be  poured 
into  winepresses — 

"  Gifts  from  the  bringer  of  joy,  Dionysos." 

(Ibid.,  ver.  614.) 

As  an  indication  of  relative  date,  we  may  mention 
that  in  Homer  Dionysos  is  not  yet  joy-giver  nor 
wine-giver,  nor  of  any  apparent  importance  in 
the  daily  life  of  man  (cf.  pp.  121,  122). 

Here,  with  or  without  the  renewed  mention 
of  the  Pleiades  as  the  signal  for  ploughing,  and 
the  blessing  on  the  closing  year,  the  poem  might 
well  have  ended,  with  a  happier  note  of  rustic 
content  than  had  filled  the  first  section.  Instead, 
the  poet  turns  rather  suddenly  to  the  sea : — 

"  But  if  an  eager  desire  for  storm-vext  voyaging  seize  tlice," 

(Ibid.,  vers.  G18.) 

This  subject  is  discussed  in  sensible  and  fairly 
connected  fashion  for  over  seventy  lines.  There 
are  shrewd  touches,  like — 

"Praise  thou  a  little. vessel:  bestow  thy  freight  in  a  large 
one  "  (Ibid.,  vers.  643). 


The  AVorks  and  Days.         71 

The  only  important  digression  is  in  the  personal 
reminiscence  already  mentioned  {supra,  p.  44) — 

"I  will  the  ways  make  known  of  the  waters  loudly  resound- 
ing, 
Though  I  am  nowise  a  master  of  navigation  and  vessels, 
Since  I  never  have  traversed  the  wide-wayed  sea  upon 

ship-board, 
Save  to  Euboea  across  from  Aulis,  where  the  Achaians 
Waited  of  old  for  winter  to  pass,  and   gathered  their 

forces, 
Sailing  from  sacred  Hellas   to  Troy  with   its   beautiful 

women. 
There,  to  the  funeral  games  of  the  wise  Amphidamas  faring, 
Over  to  Chalkis  I  passed.     The  abundant  prizes  they 

promised 
Were  by  his  valorous  sons   bestowed.     As  a  victor   in 

music 
I  bore  off,  I  declare,  a  tripod  fitted  with  handles. 
This  to  the  Muses  of  Helicon  there  I  in  gratitude  offered 
Where  they  first  had  made  me  a  master  of  clear-voiced 

singing. 
So  much  alone  is  the  knowledge  I  have  of  the  well-clamped 

vessels ; — 
Yet  will  I  utter  the  thought  of  Zeus,  who  is  lord  of  the 

aegis, 
Since  the  mysterious  gift  of  song  I  received  from   the 

Muses"  (Ibid.,  vers.  648-662). 

The  passage  is  probably  the  germ  of  the  famous 


72       The  Successors  of  Homer. 

legend,  that  Hesiod  once  met  and  vanquished 
Homer  in  a  contest  of  minstrelsy.  The  verses 
themselves  have  been  doubted,  however,  from 
the  days  of  Alexandrian  scholarship  until  now. 
They  are  generally  believed  to  be  the  utterance — 
whether  truthful  or  not — of  a  rhapsode  much 
later  than  the  old  poet  himself.  The  voyage  to 
Euboea,  here  mentioned,  is  one  of  a  few  rods 
only,  so  the  confession  of  ignorance  on  the  very 
subject  he  is  treating — navigation — is  naively 
complete.  But  it  is  said  the  sea  has  in  all  ages, 
down  to  Barry  Cornwall,  been  best  sung  by  those 
who  neither  loved  nor  knew  it :  and  Hesiod  was 
under  the  direct  inspiration  and  guidance  of  the 
Heliconian  Muses,  who  could  supply  any  gaps 
in  his  experience. 

This  continuous  passage  of  advice  to  mariners 
vanishes  in  the  midst  of  a  sentence — 

"  Do  not  stow  in   the  hollowed  vessel  the  whole  of  thy 

substance, 
Leave    thou    more    behind,   and    carry  the    less    for   a 

cargo. 
Hateful  it  is  to  meet  with  a  loss  on  the  watery  billows, — 
Hateful  too  if,  loading;  excessive  weisrht  on  a  wagon. 


The  Works  and  Days.         73 

Thou  shouldst  crush  thine  axle  and  so  thy  burden  be 

wasted. 
Keep  thou  a  measure    due:    all   things  have   a   fitting 

occasion  "  (Ibid.,  vers.  689-694). 

The  next  seventy  lines  are  a  mere  string  of 
maxims,  religious,  ethical,  ceremonial,  and  diverse 
in  character.  Many  of  them  open  up  curious 
problems  of  folklore  and  superstition.  Before 
crossing  a  river,  to  stand  gazing  on  its  current 
and  to*  utter  a  prayer  is  but  a  recognition  of  the 
river-god's  dangerous  power.  But  why  wash 
the  hands  also  ?  Is  it  an  emblem  of  one's 
innocence  ?  "  Don't  pare  your  finger-nails  at  a 
religious  banquet"  has  its  modern  parallel. 
"Don't  tell  lies  for  the  sake  of  talking,"  is  a 
positive  insult.  Some  yet  cruder  and  more 
elemental  "Don'ts"  must  be  passed  over  in 
emphatic  silence. 

Finally,  the  last  sixty  lines  of  the  poem  are 
a  calendar  of  the  lucky  and  unlucky  days  in 
each  month,  and  so  may  be  responsible  for  the 
latter  half  of  the  title.  These  precepts  are,  no 
doubt,  largely  pure  superstition.  The  fourth  of 
the  month  is  the  day  to  marry,  and  Proclos  has 


74       The  Successors  of  Homer. 

explained  that  this  is  the  day  sacred  to  Aphrodite 
and  Hermes  the  guide.  Why  the  twentieth  and 
tenth  are  fortunate  days  to  beget  a  boy,  and  the 
fourteenth  a  girl,  is  not  explained.  The  thirteenth 
is  unlucky  for  sowing,  but  proper  for  setting  out 
plants — a  finer  distinction  than  our  own  silly 
fears  would  make.  Indeed  the  poet  himself 
rebels  —  timidly — against  such  beliefs,  as  he 
makes  clear  in  the  closing  strain,  which  is  not 
without  a  quiet  dignity  of  its  own : — 

"  Different  men  praise  different  days :  they  are  rare  who  do 
know  them. 
Often  a  day  may  prove  as  a  stepmother,  often  a  mother : 
Blessed  and  happy  is  he  who,  aware  of  all  that  concerns 

them, 
"Wisely  works  his  task,  unhlamed  in  the  sight  of  immortals, 
Judging  the  omens  aright,  and  succeeds  in  avoiding  trans- 
gression "  (Ibid.,  vers.  824-828). 

Altogether,  this  poem  is  one  which  grows  in 
interest  with  more  careful  and  thoughtful  perusal. 
The  unfavourable  comparison  with  Homer's  spar- 
kling narratives  fades  from  our  thought.  Interest 
of  a  different  kind  is  gradually  awakened.  We 
seem,  indeed,  to  be  learning  to  breathe  the  heavier 


The  Works  and  Days.  75 

and  more  restful  Boeotian  air.  The  general  re- 
lation of  parts  can  often  be  felt,  even  where  we 
could  hardly  demonstrate  an  adequate  logical  or 
artistic  connection.  At  last  we  may  find  we  are 
acquiring  a  certain  faith  in,  and  a  strong  regard 
for,  the  quaint  sturdy  old  Ascraean  farmer  and 
bard.  At  the  least,  he  becomes  a  very  real  and 
very  human  being. 

Note. — There  is  a  fair  version  of  both  Hesiod's  chief 
poems  by  Elton  (Bohn's  Classical  Library),  the  Works  in 
rhymed  pentameters,  the  Theogony  in  blank  verse.  In  the 
same  volume  of  "  Bohn "  is  a  better  prose  version,  with 
many  useful  notes.  The  annotated  edition  of  the  Greek 
text  by  the  versatile  F.  A.  Paley  is  one  of  his  least  satis- 
factory works;  but  it  is  the  only  available  Hesiod  with 
English  notes.  Far  more  learned  is  the  Latin  commentary 
of  Gottling.  A  brief  but  masterly  (literary)  critique  of 
Hesiod's  poems  is  included  in  Professor  Jebb's  beautiful 
volume,  "  Classical  Greek  Poetry."  Symonds  has  also  a 
genial  account. 


76       The  Successors  of  Homer. 


III. 

THE   HESIODIC   THEOGONY,   SHIELD   OF 
HERACLES,   ETC. 

We  have  had  occasion  to  mention  before  a  famous 
passage  in  Herodotos  (ii.  53),  in  which  he  de- 
clares that  it  was  Hesiod  and  Homer  who  settled 
the  names,  the  powers,  the  honours,  and  even 
made  known  the  forms,  of  the  Greek  gods.  Of 
course  this  does  not  mean  that  these  poets  used 
with  perfect  freedom  their  own  inventive  powers, 
but,  cliiefly,  that  the  traditions  and  myths  ac- 
cepted by  them  gained  such  currency  as  to  over- 
power discordant  and  contradictory  stories.  This 
is  largely  true;  though  it  must  always  be  kept 
in  mind  that  local,  tribal,  or  national  beliefs  and 
rites,  quite  irreconcilable  with  one  another — or 
with  any  literary  tradition — lived  on  everywhere, 
and  may  at  any  point  still  come  to  our  knowledge 


The  Hesiodic  Theogony,  etc.     77 

through  a  religious  monument,  an  inscription,  or 
even  a  late  piece  of  pottery,  preserving  in  its 
decorative  pictures  some  else-forgotten  local 
legend.  But  above  all  this  tangled  thicket  of 
contradictory  polytheism  and  petty  myth  the 
conceptions  of  Homer  and  Hesiod  do  rise  into 
something  like  national  acceptance  among  the 
Greeks,  and  exercise  a  dominant — though  not  an 
exclusive — influence  on  later  lyric  and  dramatic 
poets,  on  sculptor  and  painter,  even,  in  some 
degree,  on  the  tenacious  local  beliefs  and  cults 
themselves. 

When  Herodotos  speaks  thus  of  Homer,  he 
probably  thinks  chiefly,  but  not  solely,  of  Iliad 
and  Odyssey.  We  have  seen  {supra,  pp.  14,  15) 
that  he  promptly  rejected  the  Homeric  authorship 
of  the  famous  and  magnificent  Cyprian  Epic, 
because  it  disagreed  with  the  Iliad  as  to  the 
course  of  Paris'  voyages.  In  regard  to  one,  at 
least,  of  the  early  Theban  epics,  Herodotos  is 
doubtful  if  it  was  Homeric  or  no.  Whether  he 
would  have  credited  the  Cyclic  Theogony  to 
Homer  we  cannot  say.  Probably  not,  for  he 
shows   more    shrewdness  in    literary  judgments 


78       The  Successors  of  Homer. 

than  in  almost  anything  else.  At  any  rate,  this 
Cyclic  Theogony  has  utterly  perished,  and  we 
can  test  Herodotos'  statement  only  by  the  two 
Homeric  poems  proper. 

Homer's  gods  are,  on  the  whole,  distinctly 
more  ignoble  than  any  of  his  men  and  women. 
While  conceived  in  our  human  likeness,  and 
even  more  subjected  than  we  to  the  bodily  in- 
stincts and  passions,  they  are  necessarily  deprived 
of  man's  noblest  attributes.  They  cannot  risk 
their  lives  in  a  noble  cause,  for  instance,  since 
they  are  immortal.  Xenophanes,  an  early 
philosopher,  said,  with  savage  justice,  that 
Homer  (and  Hesiod  too)  made  the  gods  do  all 
the  things  held  most  shameful  among  men ;  and 
thereupon  follows  a  bold  enumeration  of  the 
chief  crimes  in  the  decalogue  {infra,  p.  181). 

It  is,  perhaps,  fortunate  also,  for  our  impres- 
sions as  to  the  Homeric  ideals  of  divinity,  that 
the  gods  appear  in  the  poems  only  incidentally ; 
in  the  Iliad,  in  fact,  only  so  far  as  they  take  an 
active  interest  in  the  fate  of  Troy.  This  doom 
of  the  city  is,  moreover,  a  signal  example  of 
essential  justice,  since  treachery  to  the  hospitality, 


u 


The  Hesiodic  Theogony,  etc.      79 

and  sin  against  the  nuptial  rights  of  Menelaos, 
bring  just  ruin  on  Paris  and  all  his  race.  To  be 
sure,  Helen  returns  to  prosperity,  and  is  appa- 
rently assured  of  deathless  bliss,  while  many 
innocent  and  noble  sufferers  are  involved  in  the 
general  calamity.  But  for  the  deepest  problems 
of  human  suffering  and  sin,  we  have,  perhaps, 
no  right  to  demand  a  solution  from  the  earliest 
of  poets.  Perhaps,  again,  the  Helen  of  the 
Odyssey  is  hardly  human  at  all. 

Homer  finds  Zeus,  so  to  speak,  in  full  posses- 
sion of  his  Olympian  throne,  and  in  fairly  good 
control,  too,  of  his  obstreperous  family.  The  poet 
had  little  occasion  to  refer  to  the  earlier  ages  of 
elemental  strife,  to  the  legends  of  fatherly  canni- 
balism and  filial  violence  which  have  puzzled 
and  shocked  a  hundred  generations.  In  part, 
at  least,  Homer  must  have  known  and  accepted 
these  tales  also.  He  knows  that  the  Titans,  the 
conquered  uncles  of  imperial  Zeus,  sit  in  eternal 
confinement  within  lowest  Tartarus,  This  was, 
of  course,  a  penalty  of  defeat,  an  evidence  of 
divine  strife.  Though  Zeus  in  Homer  boasts 
himself  more  than  a  match  for  all  his  family, 


80       The  Successors  of  Homer. 

yet  the  gentle  Thetis  reminds  him  how  he  had 
once  been  overpowered  and  cast  into  chains  by 
his  wife  and  children,  and  rescued  only  when 
she  herself  brought  up  to  his  aid  the  hundred- 
handed  Briareos. 

The  still  cruder  tale  of  Uranos'  mutilation  at 
his  children's  hands,  and  on  the  instigation  of 
his  own  wife,  Ge,  the  weary  Earth-mother,  may 
have  been  unknown,  or,  again,  may  have  been 
deliberately  rejected,  by  Homer.  He  disti^ictly 
speaks,  not  of  Uranos,  but  of  Okeanos  as  first 
father  of  all.  Here  the  sea-loving  Ionian  race 
may  really  have  held  firmly  a  creed  more  to 
their  taste  than  the  belief  which  afterward  be- 
came the  only  orthodox  one.  For  similar  reasons, 
Poseidon  the  Earthshaker,  who  holds  the  world 
in  his  embrace,  was  long  the  supreme  divinity 
of  many  an  Ionian  state.  Indeed  the  late  and 
reluctant  compromise,  which  makes  the  sea-god 
a  less  mighty  brother  of  Zeus',  leaves  him  still 
unquestioned  power  in  his  own  demesne :  and 
he  rarely  takes  a  place  at  the  stormy  Olympian 
council-board  at  all.  In  early  myth  he  is  often 
seen   unwillingly  retiring  before  the   Olympian 


The  Hesiodic  Theogonv,  etc.     81 

gods  proper,  and  his  expulsion  by  Pallas  Athene 
from  the  Athenian  Acropolis,  by  Apollo  from 
Delphi,  was  marked  by  open  strife  which  was 
never  entirely  forgotten.  But  the  assertion 
here  to  be  emphasized  is,  that  if  Homer  had 
worked  out  for  us  his  full  conception  of  Olympian 
ancient  history  and  family  life,  it  would,  perhaps, 
shock  us  at  least  as  much  as  does  the  Theogony 
of  Hesiod. 

This  poem,  of  ten  hundred  and  twenty-two 
hexameter  verses,  is  the  earliest  Greek  sketch 
of  "systematic  theology"  we  are  likely  ever 
to  behold.  It  may  well  be,  indeed,  the  first 
adequate  attempt  the  Greeks  had  ever  made  to 
record  and  to  reconcile  the  fancies,  long  current 
among  them,  as  to  the  origin  of  the  world  and 
its  divine  government. 

The  prevailing  opinion  of  antiquity  assigned 
this  poem  also  to  the  author  of  the  Works  and 
Days.  (Pausanias  the  traveller,  alone,  asserts 
that  the  folk  dwelling  in  his  day  about  Mount 
Helicon  accepted  only  the  Works  and  Days 
as  Hesiod's  genuine  work.)  The  general  voice 
was   probably,    essentially,   in   the   right.     Some 

6 


82       The  Successors  of  Homer. 

discrepancies  and  repetitions  in  the  two  works 
may  be  ascribed  to  the  annoying  interpolation 
from  which  both  have  certainly  suffered.  But 
at  least,  the  two  chief  Hesiodic  poems  should 
be  accredited  to  the  same  age,  and  to  the  same 
provincial,  didactic,  rather  feebly  inspired  off- 
shoot of  the  great  Homeric  school.  The  influence 
of  Homer  is  seen  everywhere,  in  the  fragments 
of  lost  works  as  in  the  extant  Hesiodic  poems. 
In  particular,  the  marked  local  dialect  of  Boeotia, 
a  coarse  form  of  Aeolic  Greek,  has  hardly  coloured 
at  all  the  traditional  Ionic  language  of  the  epic 
school.  Many  lines  and  half  lines  are  borrowed 
without  change  from  Iliad  or  Odyssey.  Occa- 
sionally, even,  an  Ionic  name  or  usage,  which 
must  have  been  unintelligible  in  Boeotia,  betrays 
the  intrusive  interpolation  of  a  later  time.  But 
the  Theogony  is  still,  essentially,  Hesiodic. 

"We  turn  to  a  continuous  analysis  of  its 
contents,  a  somewhat  less  difficult,  but  also  less 
interesting  task,  than  in  the  case  of  the  Works 
and  Days.  The  first  one  hundred  and  sixteen 
lines  are  an  invocation  of  the  Muses,  daughters 
of  Zeus  and  Mnemosyne,  or  Memory.     Here  their 


The  Hesiodic  Theogony,  etc.     83 

names  occur,  for  the  first  time  in  Greek  literature. 
No  attributes  are  assigned  to  any,  though  it  is 
said  of  Calliope,  who  was  undoubtedly  regarded 
already  as  the  patroness  of  epic  poetry, — 

"  She  of  them  all  is  the  oldest. 
She,  moreover,  abides  in  the  courts  of  reverend  monarchs." 
(Theog.,  vers.  79,  80.) 

It  should  be  remembered  that  the  bards  every- 
where in  Homer  appear  as  courtly  minstrels. 
There  is,  indeed,  a  passage  here  almost  as  proud 
as  that  haughty  close  of  Pindar's  first  Olympic 
ode,  setting,  like  it,  king  and  singer  on  almost 
equal  pedestals.     Of  the  ruler,  Hesiod  says — 

"  He  is  supreme  among  his  people  assembled, 
Even  as  is  among  men  the  sacred  gift  of  the  Muses. 
Since   from  the   Muses    spring,   and  the  mighty  archer 

Apollo, 
Those  whoso  upon  earth  are  the  singers  of  songs,  and  the 

harpers. 
Monarchs  arise  from  Zeus.    Yet  blessed  is  he  whom  the 

Muses 
Cherish :  and  sweet  is  the  liquid  speech  from  his  lips  that 

is  flowing. 
Ay,  though  it  may  be  a  man  with  fresh-wrought  trouble 

of  spirit, 


84       The  Successors  of  Homer. 

Bitterly  vexed  at  heart,  is  pining,  yet  if  a  minstrel, 
Liegeman  of  Muses,  sing  of  the  heroes'  glories  aforetime, 
Or  of  the  blessed  gods  who  have  their  abode  in  Olympos, 
— Soon   he  forgets   his   sorrow :    his   cares  no  more   are 
remembered  "  (Theog.,  vers.  92-102). 

This  is  certainly  a  noble  and  a  lofty  strain, 
and  is  all  too  closely  imitated  in  one  of  the 
Homeric  Hymns  {infra,  p.  111).  Fused  into 
the  same  prologue  however,  indeed  preceding 
this  appeal  to  the  Olympian  sisters  nine,  is  a 
much  humbler  invocation  of  the  Heliconian 
Muses  : — 

"  They  who  Hesiod  once  in  glorious  music  instructed 
While  he  was  watcbing  his  lambs  in  the  dales  of  Helicon 

sacred. 
This  is   the  earliest   word    unto   me  by  the   goddesses 

uttered." 

(And  a  very  strange  word  it  is,  this  first  greeting 
of  the  Muses  to  our  race  ! ) 

"  '  Shepherds  that  dwell  in  the  fields,  ye  gluttons  ignoble 
and  wretched, 
Many  a  fiction  like  to  the  truth  are  we  skilful  to  utter. 
Yet  are  we  skilled  no  less  to  reveal,  if  we  will,  what  is 

truthful ! ' 
Then  as  a  staff  they  gave  me  a  branch  of  luxuriant  laurel, 


The  Hesiodic  Theogony,  etc.    85 

Plucking  it,  fair  to  behold :  with  the  power  of  song  they 

inspired  me, 
So  I  in  verse  could  ennoble  the  things  of  the  past  and 

the  future  "  (Ibid.,  vers.  22-32). 

In  truth,  this  long  "prologue"  contains  cer- 
tainly two,  and  probably  half  a  dozen,  hymns, 
or  preludes,  each  addressed  to  the  Muses.  The 
announcement  of  the  proper  subject  does  not 
even  begin  until  ver.  105  : — 

"  Sing  ye  the  sacred  race  of  immortals  ever-existing, 
Those  who  arose  into  life  from  the  Earth  and  star-studded 

Heaven, 
Out  of   the    murky  Night,   or   else  by   the   salt   Deep 

nurtured  "  (Ibid.,  vers,  105-107). 

These  are  alike  forces  and  persons :  for  per- 
sonification was  not  then,  as  with  us,  a  device 
of  rhetoric,  it  was  the  resistless  instinct  of 
childish  man. 

"  Tell  how,  aforetime,  gods  and  Earth  came  into  existence. 
Rivers,  and  Deep  unbounded,  for  ever  surging  and  swelling, 
Stars  that  brightly  gleam,  and  Heaven  extended  above  us ; 
Then  of  the  gods  who  from  them  sprang,  the  Bestowers 

of  blessings ; 
Tell  us  how  they  divided  their  wealth,  and  parted  the 
honours, 


86       The  Successors  of  Homer. 

How  they  came  to  abide  on  Olympos  abounding  in  ridges. 
These  things  sing  me,  Muses  who  hold  your  Olympian 

dwellings 
From   the   beginning : — and    say   what    first    came  into 

existence  "  (Ibid.,  vers.  108-116.) 

First  of  all,  we  learn,  was  only  Chaos,  i.e. 
Yawning  (space),  but  Earth  arises.  With  her 
appear  Tartaros,  i.e.  the  nether  gloom,  the  mere 
antithesis  of  kindly  mother  Earth,  and  Eros, 
Desire  or  Love, 

"Lord    and    subduer  of    all,   who    is    fairest  among   the 
Immortals." 

Such  assertions  about  Eros  are  repeated  con- 
stantly by  later  Greeks.  Whether  Hesiod  had 
any  clear,  or  vague,  insight  into  the  cosmic  law 
of  attraction  we  call  gravitation,  or  the  mystic 
tie  of  sexual  instinct  on  which  all  organic  life 
must  depend,  we  may  hardly  dare  to  decide. 
That  Eros  was  the  eldest  of  things  created, 
we  find  stated  first  by  Parmenides  {infra, 
p.  187). 

Earth  produces  out  of  herself  overarching 
Heaven  to  be  her  wedded  mate.  The  mountains 
aud    the   woodland    nymphs    are    her    children 


The  Hesiodic  Theogony,  etc.    87 

too.  So  are  deep -eddying  Okeanos,  Hyperion, 
and  the  other  vaguely  conceived  brethren, 
the  Titans,  who  afterwards  strive  in  vain 
against  that  mightier  third  generation  whom 
Zeus  leads  to  victory.  Kronos  is  the  youngest 
and  fiercest  of  this  Titan  brood.  He  takes  the 
lead  in  that  revolting  mutilation  of  his  father 
Uranos,  which  his  mother  Earth,  weary  of  child- 
bearing,  plans  and  assists.  Some  dim  figurative 
meaning  this  legend  once  had,  no  doubt.  Perhaps 
Kjonos  is  primeval  man,  resisting  the  tyranny 
of  the  wild  forces  of  the  early  world,  typified 
in  the  father  Uranos. 

Earth  is  not  mother  of  all  things.  Like,  if  not 
equal,  to  her,  Night  is  sprung  from  Chaos,  and 
is  also  mother  of  a  countless  brood.  Without 
a  wedded  mate  she  bore  Doom  and  Death, 
Dreams,  Nemesis,  Age,  and  Strife, — and  also  the 
three  Fates,  who  are  here  first  named :  Clotho 
the  spinner,  Lachesis,  and  Atropos.  But  strangely 
enough  a  much  later  passage  names  the  same 
trio  again,  as  daughters,  not  of  Night  at  all, 
but  of  Zeus  and  Themis.  The  commentators  are 
inclined   to  cut   out    the   earlier   passage.     But, 


88       The  Successors  of  Homer. 

indeed,  the  later  philosophers,  and  poets  also, 
were  not  quite  agreed  whether  these  rulers  of 
destiny  were  themselves  subject  to  Zeus,  or 
older  and  mightier  than  he.  Perhaps  by  their 
twofold  place  in  the  Theogony  itself  they  typify 
a  question  which  even  the  Christian  theologian 
may  discuss:  Is  a  supreme  but  just  ruling 
divinity-  himself  subject  to,  or  superior  to,  law 
and  destiny  ? 

Night,  wedded  to  her  brother  Erebos,  produced 
also  Day,  and  Ether,  the  light  upper  air.  The 
Cyclic  Titanomachy,  we  are  told,  made  Ether 
the  father  of  Uranos.  Each  cosmogony  neces- 
sarily varied  freely  in  such  matters.  But  we 
soon  weary  in  the  attempt  to  extract  mystic  or 
other  significance  from  these  faint  personifications 
and  tiresome  allegories.  Yet  even  from  the  mere 
lists  of  names,  that  sometimes  reach  portentous 
length,  unexpected  information  may  be  gleaned. 
Thus  at  ver.  237— 

"  Tethys  unto  Okeanos  bare  the  eddying  rivers." 

The  list  of  twenty-five  streams  which  follows 
can  only  be  a  selection  even   from   the   limited 


The  Hesiodic  Theogony,  etc.     89 

geographical  area  known  to  the  poet.  (He  says, 
indeed,  that  he  could  name  three  thousand.) 
Yet  the  very  first  is  Neilos,  which  Homer  knew 
only  as  "  the  river  Aegyptos," — so  we  are  clearly 
in  a  later  age.  Next  is  Alpheios,  and  then 
Eridanos,  probably  the  Po.  The  mention  of 
Ister,  or  the  Danube,  shows  that  Greek  mariners 
had  already  faced  the  terrors  of  the  Black  Sea. 
The  failure  of  Ehone  or  Khine  to  appear  in  the 
catalogue  may  perhaps  indicate  the  Western 
limits  of  Hellenic  knowledge  in  Hesiod's  day. 
Simois  and  Scamander,  the  two  Trojan  rivers, 
are  mentioned  far  apart  in  the  list,  but  the 
epithet  divine,  applied  to  both,  and  only  to 
them,  is  probably  a  tribute  to  the  master's 
masterpiece.  The  name  of  Scamander  has  also 
a  certain  prominence  as  the  closing  word  in  the 
passage.  A  more  elaborate  tribute  to  the  Poeta 
Sovrano  was  noted  in  the  "Works  and  Days 
{supra,  pp.  60-61). 

The  musical  harmony,  even  in  a  bare  list  of 
Greek  names,  may  be  felt  in  vers.  243-262, 
where  the  fifty  sea-nymphs,  daughters  of  Nereus, 
are    all    catalogued.      Only   a  few,  Amphitrite, 


90      The  Successors  of  Homer. 

Achilles'  mother  Thetis,  and  Galatea  who  lured 
the  Cyclops  on  to  make  himself  ridiculous,  are 
familiar.  Yet  all  float,  as  gracefully  as  the 
curving  billows  themselves,  upon  the  bounding 
dactyls  of  Hesiod's  verse : — 

"  Glaukonome,  who  in  laughter  delights,  and  Pontoporeia, 
Leiagore  and  Euagore  and  Laomedeia. 
Poulynome  and  Autonoe  and  Lysianassa  !" 

Even  Hesiod  shrinks  from  enumerating  the 
three  thousand  ocean-nymphs,  and  we,  avoiding 
the  strange  monsters,  Cerberos  and  Hydra, 
Sphinx  and  Chimaera  dire,  may  pass  on  rapidly 
to  ver.  453,  the  beginning  of  a  new  but  still 
savage  age.  Kronos,  the  unnatural  son,  is  a  yet 
more  cruel  father.  His  children  by  Eheia  are 
devoured  whole  as  fast  as  they  are  born :  Hestia, 
Demeter,  and  Here,  Hades,  and  Poseidon.  The 
sixth  child  is  Zeus,  but  in  his  stead  a  great 
stone,  wrapt  in  swaddling-clothes,  sated  the 
ostrich-like  paternal  voracity.  Safely  arrived  at 
maturity,  Zeus  rescues  his  brothers  and  sisters 
from  this  living  tomb.  Moreover,  his  own 
changeling,   the   stone,   was   itself  deposited   by 


The  Hesiodic  Theogony,  etc.    91 

Zeus  on  earth,  at  Delphi,  to  be  a  memorial 
to  mortals.  Few  families  would  set  such  a 
memorial  stone  on  consecrated  ground!  Doubt- 
less the  poet  Hesiod  himself  had  seen  it  there, 
as  Pausanias  did  many  centuries  later.  But 
Xenophanes  and  Plato,  Aeschylos  and  Pindar, 
raise  a  fearless  cry  of  disbelief  in  all  such 
horrors  as  tliis  tale. 

Less  famous  than  Kronos  is  his  brother-Titan 
lapetos,  who,  wedding  the  ocean-nymph  Clymene, 
begets  four  sons,  the  most  familiar  of  whom  are 
Atlas  and  Prometheus.  Atlas,  at  Zeus'  bid- 
ding, holds  the  sky  upon  his  shoulders.  It  is, 
doubtless,  his  share  in  the  punishment  meted 
out  to  the  vanquished  Titans.  Prometheus' 
story  is  more  fully  told.  Why  this  cousin  of 
Zeus  is  the  champion  of  man  is,  however,  not 
explained.  Indeed,  of  man's  creation  we  hear 
nothing  at  all.  Neither  do  we  learn  how 
the  human  race  had  existed  without  women 
previous  to  Pandora's  appearance.  The  tale 
begins  abruptly  (ver.  535). 

"  When  now    gods   were    at    strife  with    mortal    men    at 
Mekone  " 


92      The  Successors  of  Homer. 

Were  the  two  races  equals  or  companions  until' 
then?  What  was  this  strange  gathering  at 
Mekone  (Sicyon)?  Even  the  verb  (hKpivovro) 
is  of  doubtful  meaning,  and  may  signify  "  were 
deciding  their  dispute."  At  any  rate,  an  ox  is 
there  slain,  and  Prometheus  slily  wraps  the 
worthless  bones  in  tempting  white  fat,  but,  on 
the  other  hand,  conceals  the  good  meat  within 
the  hide, — and  offers  Zeus  his  choice.  Zeus  is 
not  deceived — so  he  assures  us — but  takes  the 
less  valuable  portion  knowingly,  is  wroth  at 
Prometheus  none  the  less,  and  in  his  rage 
refuses  the  gift  of  fire  to  wretched  men.  That 
they  had  possessed  it  before  is  not  expressly 
said.  In  fact,  we  get  no  glimpse  at  our  race's 
origin  or  previous  condition.  Prometheus  steals 
the  fire,  and  brings  it  to  men  in  a  hollow  reed. 
It  is  later  poets  who  explain,  that  he  obtains  it 
from  Zeus'  hearth-fire,  or  Hephaistos'  forge,  or  by 
lighting  a  torch  at  the  sun-god's  chariot  wheels. 
Singularly  enough  the  custom  among  men  of 
sacrificing  to  the  gods,  as  their  share,  the  bones 
of  the  victims  wrapped  in  fat,  and  eating  the  rest 
themselves,  became  a  permanent  usage.     Indeed, 


The  Hesiodic  Theogony,  etc.     93 

the  whole  tale  appears  to  be  "  teleological,"  i.e. 
invented  as  an  explanation  for  the  actual  Greek 
habit  in  sacrifice,  though  it  can  hardly  be  accepted 
as  either  a  pious  or  a  reassuring  solution ! 

Pandora  is  now  created  by  Zeus  in  his  wrath, 
to  punish  men  further  for  Prometheus'  daring. 
But  men  and  gods  are  apparently  still  dwelling 
together  on  nearly  equal  terms.  Probably  men 
were  thought  of  by  Hesiod  as  actually  the 
children  of  Prometheus,  or  as  creatures  that 
had  been  fashioned  out  of  clay  and  endowed 
with  life  by  him.  (Both  theories  are  found  in 
later  writers.)  Possibly  the  passage  in  which 
this  was  explained  has  accidentally  dropped  out 
of  our  Theogony. 

It  is  Epimetheus  (Afterthought,  or  the  Short- 
sighted One,)  just  as  in  the  Works  and  Days,  who 
receives  and  weds  Pandora,  and  as  we  hear  that 
"  from  her  came  the  race  of  mortal  women,"  he  at 
least,  if  not  Prometheus,  is  to  be  regarded  as  our 
divine  ancestor.  Hesiod,  by  the  way,  takes  a  far 
more  pessimistic  view  of  the  woman  question  in 
the  Theogony  than  in  the  Works.  Prometheus  is 
bound  to  a  column,  of  Zeus'  hall  perhaps — or,  more 


94      The  Successors  of  Homer. 

probably,  in  Tartaros.*  Prometheus'  liver  grows 
miraculously  every  night  to  sate  the  rapacious 
eagle  that  feeds  on  it  by  day.  It  is  Heracles  who 
later  slays  the  eagle,  not  without  the  approval  of 
Zeus,  who  is  glad  to  glorify  his  illustrious  mortal 
son.  That  Zeus  was  prompted  by  any  fear  of 
Prometheus'  power,  or  made  any  compromise 
with  him,  is  nowhere  intimated  by  Hesiod.  In 
Aeschylos'  great  theological  tragedy  of  Prome- 
theus, the  hero  is  made  the  son  of  Themis 
(Justice),  and  shares  with  her  the  knowledge  of  a 
mysterious  danger  threatening  Zeus'  throne.  This 
gives  to  the  sufferer  the  power  of  resistance  which 
is  almost  essential  to  a  tragic  hero. 

This  Promethean  story  is  for  many  reasons  the 
most  interesting  feature  of  the  Theogony.  It  is 
a  pity  that  it  appears  there  in  a  confused  and 
probably  in  a  fragmentary  form.  These  first 
gropings  of  man's  awakened  intellect  about  those 
roots    of    primeval    mystery    which    no    human 


*  This  column,  instead  of  the  Aeschylean  rock,  is  seen  in 
early  pictures  of  the  group.  See,  for  instance,  the  curious 
black-figured  vase  on  which  Atlas  and  Prometheus  appear 
together :  Baumeister,  p.  1411. 


The  Hesiodic  Theogony,  etc.    95 

ingenuity  can  lay  bare,  must  have  a  strange 
fascination  for  every  thoughtful  mind.  We  surely 
all  share  the  gentle  poet's  faith — 

"  That  in  even  savage  bosoms 
There  are  longings,  yearnings,  strivings. 
For  the  good  they  comprehend  not ; 
That  the  feeble  hands  and  helpless, 
Groping  blindly  in  the  darkness. 
Touch  God's  right  hand  in  that  darkness, 
And  are  lifted  up  and  strengthened." 

The  great  fault  of  our  classical  dictionaries  and 
manuals  of  mythology  is  that  they  piece  the  new 
cloth  of  Lucian  and  Apollodorus,  ay  even  mediaeval 
and  modern  fancy,  upon  the  tattered  and  faded 
myths  of  prehistoric  Greece,  and  give  us  no  clue 
to  trace  by  themselves  the  crude  beginnings, 
upon  which  so  many  generations  as  well  as  great 
individual  poets  or  philosophers  have  made  addi- 
tions and  alterations.  Aeschylos'  or  Plato's  Pro- 
metheus— yes,  Shelley's  or  Lowell's — can  give  us 
much  of  noble  suggestion ;  but  they  do  not  fill 
out  faithfully  the  Hesiodic  sketch. 

The  remainder  of  the  poem  must  be  passed  over 
rapidly.     The   most    vigorous   sustained   passage 


96      The  Successors  of  Homer. 

is  the  war  between  the  Titans,  Zeus'  uncles,  on 
the  one  side,  and  the  younger  god  himself  with 
his  brothers  and  allies  on  the  other.  Like  the 
Trojan  war  on  earth,  this  struggle  lasts  ten  years. 
Tantalizing  to  the  last,  Hesiod  gives  us  no  real 
explanation  of  its  origin  or  cause :  but  it  is  no 
doubt  again  a  shadow  cast  upon  the  clouds,  as  it 
were,  by  man's  real  conflict  with  Nature's  savage 
forces. 

The  prison-house  of  the  vanquished  Titans,  as 
far  beneath  the  earth  as  Heaven  is  high  above,  is 
described  with  a  lurid  splendour  and  vagueness 
in  outline  rather  reminding  us  of  the  Miltonic 
imagination  than  of  Dante's  clear-cut  precision. 
In  the  same  general  connection  occurs  the  fine 
passage  upon  Styx.  This  eldest  of  Okeanos' 
daughters  has  rendered  efficient  aid  to  Zeus  in 
the  great  war.  In  fact,  her  two  sons,  Kratos  and 
Bia,  Strength  and  Force,  are  indispensable  sup- 
porters of  the  new  throne,  and  in  the  opening 
scene  of  Aeschylos'  play  we  may  see  how  they 
compel  the  reluctant  smith-god  Hephaistos  to 
spike  the  no  less  reluctant  Prometheus  to  a 
crag  beside  the  lonely  Northern  sea.     Styx  is  a 


The  Hesiodic  Theogony,  etc.    97 

divinity  and  a  mother,  then,  but  she  is  at  the 
same  time  a  mighty  river  in  that  dark  nether 
world,  fed  by  a  tenth  part  of  Okeanos'  own  stream. 
For  her  support  in  danger  she  is  rewarded  by  a 
signal  honour,  Zeus  selects  her  waters  as  the 
especial  safeguard  against  deception  among  the 
gods.  She  herself,  indeed,  never  leaves  her  station 
below,  by  the  palace  of  Hades  and  Persephone. 

"  There  is  the  goddess'   abode  who   is  hated  among   the 

immortals, 
Awesome  Styx.     She  is  firat-born  daughter  to  refluent 

Ocean, 
There,  far  off  from  the  gods,  is  set  her  illustrious  dwelling, 
Covered  above  by  enormous  rocks  :  and  about  it  on  all  sides, 
Firmly  joined  to  the  sky,  it  stands,  by  pillars  of  silver. 
Seldom  thither  does  swift-footed  Iris,   the  daughter  of 

Wonder, 
Fare  with  the  message  she  bringeth  across  the  sea's  wide 

ridges ; 
Only  so  often  as  strife  hath  arisen  among  the  immortals. 
Whoso  speaks  untruth,  of  them  that  abide  in  Olympos, 
Iris  is  sent  by  Zeus,  from  afar,  in  her  golden  pitcher. 
That  great  oath  of  the  gods  to  fetch  :  the  water  so  famous. 
Coldly  it  trickleth  down  from  a  rock,  both  craggy  and  lofty. 
Whoso,  among   the  immortals   who  dwell  upou   snowy 

Olympos' 
Summits,  perjures  himself  as  he  pours  thereof  a  libation, 

H 


98       The  Successors  of  Homer. 

Breathless  is  destined  to  lie,  until  a  year  is  completed. 
Never  to  him  ambrosia,  the  food  of  immortals,  is  proffered, 
Never  the  nectar ;  but  still  without  breathing  he  tarries, 

and  speechless. 
There  on  his  couch  outstretched;  and  evil  the  slumber 

that  wraps  him. 
When  this  penalty  now   with   the   long  year  comes  to 

completion, 
Still  thereafter  another  more  grievous  evil  awaits  him. 
Nine  years  long  is  he  parted  from  gods  whose  life  is  un- 
ending, 
Never   with   them    may  he   join    in  council,  never   at 

banquet, 
Nine  full  years.     In  the  tenth  he  again  may  mingle  among 

them, 
Joining  in  speech  with  immortals  who  hold  the  Olympian 

dwellings. 
— Such  is  the  oath  gods  swear  by  the  deathless  Stygian 

waters." 

This  is,  perhaps,  as  favourable  an  example  as 
could  be  selected  to  illustrate  Hesiod's  loftier 
style.  While  Zeus  exacts  this-  solemn  pledge 
and  penalty  in  cases  of  divine  perjury,  there  is 
in  Hesiod  no  explicit  statement  that  oaths  or 
promises  given  by  the  gods  under  other  circum- 
stances may  be  lightly  broken.  Nevertheless, 
this   Hesiodic   myth  easily  opened   the  way  for 


The  Hesiodic  Theogony,  etc.     99 

such  an  interpretation,  and  it  was  only  too 
widely  accepted  in  later  days. 

Whether  Joseph  Eodman  Drake  was  a  classical 
student  or  not,  this  passage  must  have  influenced 
directly  or  remotely  some  of  the  most  delicate 
fancies  in  the  "  Culprit  Fay,"  So  near  do  even  the 
latest  creations  of  poetic  art  come  to  the  Hellenic 
sources  of  original  inspiration. 

It  would  have  been  better  for  the  poem  as  a 
work  of  art  if  it  had  broken  off  here.  But  the 
rewards  to  Zeus'  supporters  take  chiefly  the  form 
of  brides — he  liimself  securing  the  leonine  share, 
— and  the  later  verses  return  to  the  wearisome 
genealogical  lists,  from  wliich  we  supposed  we 
had  escaped.  Last-mentioned  of  creatures  wholly 
divine  is  the  sorceress  Medea.  There  is  perhaps 
a  gap,  possibly  even  a  new  work  begins  here,  for 
the  Muses  are  invoked  anew,  and  we  now  learn 
of  the  goddesses  who  have  borne  children  to 
mortal  fathers  (ver.  963).  Finally,  our  manu- 
script text  ends  (vers.  1021-1022)  with  the  mere 
prologue  for  still  another  catalogue  now  lost: — 
bidding  the  Muses  "  Sing  of  the  race  of  women !  " 
Those  mortal  women  who  had  borne  children  to 


100     The  Successors  of  Homer. 

divine  fathers  are  undoubtedly  meant.  Indeed 
of  this  poem,  as  of  others  from  the  great 
Hesiodic  school,  many  tantalizing  fragments  yet 
remain. 

The  great  poetic  fault  in  the  Theogony  is  its 
feeble  perspective  and  extreme  lack  of  proportion. 
We  have  mentioned,  for  instance,  the  passage 
(vers.  349-361)  in  which  fifty  nymphs  are 
swiftly  catalogued  by  name.  To  pass  from  this 
to  the  large  vague  outlines  of  Titanic  strife  is 
like  changing  suddenly  a  microscope  for  a  tele- 
scope. Even  in  the  very  midst  of  such  a  rapid 
list,  we  are  detained,  at  the  mention  of  Hecate, 
while  a  hymn  of  forty  lines  is  devoted  to  her 
alone !  This  may  well  be  an  interpolation,  but 
it  shares  fully  the  interest  of  the  rest.  Indeed 
the  value  of  the  Theogony  is  not  chiefly  as  a 
single  work  of  art,  nor  even  as  literature  at 
all.  Crude,  contradictory,  perhaps  the  creation 
of  various  hands  and  generations,  it  is  worthy  of 
study  as  an  early  attempt  to  project  our  human 
intellect  into  that  dark  backward  and  abysmal 
mystery  which  still  excites  and  bafiies  alike  the 
imasfination   of  the  savage,   the   child,   and   the 


The  Hesiodic  Tlieogoriy,  etc.  101 

philosopher.  The  special  student  of  Greek  litera- 
ture is  struck,  furthermore,  with  the  influence 
exerted  by  the  Hesiodic  myths  throughout  the 
Prometheus  of  Aeschylos.  Indeed  that  great 
trilogy  may  well  have  been  planned  in  great 
part  as  a  protest  against  the  crude  and  ignoble 
theology  of  Hesiod.  To  this  theme  we  may  hope 
to  return. 

We  have  just  noticed  the  strange  fashion  in 
which  our  manuscripts  of  the  Hesiodic  Theogony 
close.  The  last  four  lines  are  unmistakably  a 
summing-up  of  the  previous  fifty  verses,  and  an 
opening  invocation  for  a  new  poem — or  for  a 
new  section  in  a  great  theological  corpus  of 
poetry : — 

"  These  are  the  goddesses  who,  with  mortal  husbands 
united, 

Bore  them  children,  like  unto  gods  whose  life  is  eternal. 

— Now  of  the  race  of  mortal  women  sing  me,  ye  sweet- 
voiced 

Muses  Olympian,  daughters  to  Zeus  who  is  lord  of  the 
aegis  "  (Theog.,  vers.  1019-1022). 

The  form  of  these  two  contrasted  couplets  makes 


102     The  Successors  of  Homer. 

the  latter  allusion  plainly  point  to  women 
who  have  borne  children  by  the  gods.  This 
catalogue  would,  naturally,  be  much  longer  than 
the  list  of  the  children  from  goddesses  by  mortal 
mates,  which  had  just  been  given.  Many  frag- 
ments and  allusions  attest  the  existence,  and  the 
popularity,  in  classical  times  of  this  Hesiodic 
Catalogue  of  Women.  Indeed,  learned  editors 
like  Gottling  and  Kinkel  swell  the  list  of  these 
citations  to  more  than  a  hundred  and  twenty : 
(though  how  such  incidents  as  the  union  of  two 
mortals,  Telemachos  and  Nestor's  daughter,  or 
of  the  divine  Thetis  with  human  Peleus,  etc., 
can  be  properly  included  there,  I  am  unable  to 
see).  The  truth  is,  that  the  mention  of  an 
ancestress  in  this  list  became,  for  many  ancient 
families,  the  chief  evidence  of  illustrious  origin. 
This  may  well  remind  us  of  the  royal  "  bar 
sinister,"  prominent  in  so  many  modern  coats- 
of-arms. 

It  chances  that  one  notable  episode  from  the 
Catalogue  has  been  preserved  in  full.  It  is  the 
tale  of  Zeus'  amour  with  Alcmene,  and  of 
Heracles'  birth.     The  fifty-six  verses  were  found 


The  Hesiodic  Theogony,  etc.  103 

in  the  fourth  book  of  the  Catalogue,  as  a  Greek 
commentator  positively  states.  The  manner  in 
which  the  passage  is  transmitted  to  us,  however, 
is  curious  and  instructive.  It  is  now  read  as 
the  opening  section  of  a  poem  called  the  "  Shield 
of  Heracles,"  in  480  hexameters.  To  the  tale  of 
Alcmene  a  later  rhapsode  has  attached,  very 
awkwardly,  an  account  of  one  among  Heracles' 
less  famous  adventures,  viz.  the  fight  with  Cycnus. 
This  story  is  really  told  in  245  lines  (vers.  57-140 
and  320-480).  But  into  this,  again,  has  been 
thrust  a  description  of  Heracles'  shield— of  course 
an  imitation  of  the  famous  passage  in  the  Iliad 
on  the  armour  of  Achilles.  This  rather  weari- 
some digression  fills  vers.  141  to  320,  or  much 
more  than  a  third  of  the  poem,  to  which 
it  therefore,  properly  enough,  has  given  its 
accepted  name.  The  sutures  here  indicated  are 
perfectly  evident,  even  if  we  had  not  the  positive 
ancient  witness,  who  apparently  still  read  the 
opening  lines  also  in  their  proper  place,  in  the 
Catalogue  of  Women.  If  these  added  portions 
are  fair  samples,  then  the  later  rhapsodes  of  the 
Hesiodic  school  were  feeble   in  conception   and 


104    The  Successors  of  Homer. 

tasteless  in  execution,  even  as  compared  with 
their  own  master. 

Some  lesser  fragments  from  the  Catalogue,  e.g. 
a  description  of  Dodona  and  its  oracle,  in  ten 
hexameters,  may  be  read  with  pleasure. 

Various  other  titles  of  poems,  and  scanty  frag- 
ments, attributed  to  Hesiod,  still  remain.  A 
curious  problem  is  raised  by  the  "  Eoeae,"  which 
is  variously  cited  as  identical  with  the  Catalogue 
of  Women,  as  a  part  of  it,  and  as  a  separate 
poem,  often  in  disagreement  with  the  Cata- 
logue !  The  truth  may  be,  that,  originally 
poems  of  the  same  general  school,  but  by 
different  hands,  they  were  united  by  later  editors, 
just  as  the  discordant  Cyclic  Epics  were  forced 
into  a  sort  of  harmony.  The  curious  title  is 
easily  explained.  Beginning,  perhaps,  with  some 
such  formula  as  Nestor's — 

"  Never  have  I  such  heroes  seen,  nor  shall  I  behold  them," 

each  new  section  opened  "or  siich  as"  (?)  oir]). 
Several  such  lines  still  remain,  among  the 
scanty  fragments  quoted   from  either  poem.     In 


The  Hesiodic  Theogony,  etc.    105 

particular,  the  "  Shield  of  Heracles  "  ("  from  the 
fourth  book  of  the  Catalogue  ")  begins — 

"  Or  as,  deserting  her  home  and  the  land  of  her  father, 
Alcmene  .  .  ." 

Among  the  titles  of  lost  Hesiodic  works,  the 
"  Epithalamium  on  Peleus  and  Thetis,"  and 
"  Theseus'  Descent  to  Hades,"  are  as  attractive 
as  any  mythological  subjects ;  and  the  former 
might  have  proved,  if  preserved,  a  welcome 
literary  pendant  for  the  Franpois  vase,  and, 
perhaps,  largely  the  source  of  Catullus'  ideas 
in  his  largest  poem.  Purely  didactic  treatises, 
like  one  on  "Astronomy,"  are  mentioned.  The 
"Precepts  of  Chiron"  (the  Centaur  who  instructed 
Achilles)  may  have  been  both  mythic  and 
didactic.  But  this,  like  the  "  Prophetic  Verses," 
and  the  "Journey  about  the  World,"  may  well 
have  been  mere  later  compilations  of  extracts 
from  the  voluminous  Hesiodic  works. 

Even  in  the  sustained  poems  yet  extant,  the 
Works  and  Days,  the  Theogony,  and  the  Shield 
of  Heracles,  we  can  hardly  feel  sure  at  any  point 
that  we  have  the  material  just  as  it  left  Hesiod's 
bands.     The  stamp  set  upon  it  is,  at  best,  that 


106    The  Successors  of  Homer. 

of  a  school — perhaps  merely  the  mark  of  any 
early  age  and  of  a  rather  rustic  and  crude 
artistic  sense.  Despite  the  inspiring  Homeric 
examples,  literature  seems  to  be  in  its  infancy 
again.  Perhaps  it  is,  rather,  in  the  opening  years 
of  maturity,  struggling  vainly  with  philosophic 
thought  and  with  a  fuller  personal  consciousness, 
to  which  the  happier  singers  of  the  morning 
gave  little  heed. 


(    107    ) 


IV. 

THE  HOMERIC   HYMNS. 

When  Odysseus  was  being  entertained  by 
Nausicaa's  parents  (Odys.  viii.  499),  he  asked  the 
court  minstrel  Demodocos  to  sing  the  tale  of 
the  wooden  horse ;  and  the  bard  straightway — 

"  Impelled  of  the  god  began." 

The  Greek  scholiast  is  in  doubt  whether  this 
means  "He,  inspired  by  the  god,  began,"  or 
"  Taking  his  start  from  the  god  he  began."  For 
it  was  their  custom,  he  adds,  to  offer  a  prelude 
in  the  god's  honour.  So  it  is  possible  Homer 
himself  contains  an  allusion  to  this  custom  of 
the  poets  and  rhapsodes,  to  open  their  epic  re- 
cital with  a  prelude,  invoking  the  divinity  at 
whose  festival  or  shrine  they  were  present,  or 
under  whose  especial  guardianship  they  stood. 


108     Tlic  Successors  of  Homer. 

Pindar  (circa  500  B.C.),  also,  commences  his 
second  Pythian  ode  thus : — 

"  As  the  Homeridae, 
Minstrels  of  well-joined  verse, 
Begin  most  often  with  a  prelude  unto  Zeus." 

A  clearer  hint  is  given  by  Plutarch,  in  §  G  of 
liis  treatise  on  Music :  "  For  first  paying  their 
devoirs  to  the  gods,  they  (the  rhapsodes  or  pro- 
fessional reciters)  passed  on  quickly  to  the  poesy 
of  Homer  and  the  others." 

While  this  might  well  happen  even  at  the 
courts  of  tlie  Achaian  princes  in  the  heroic  age, 
it  seems  more  appropriate  to  the  popular  religious 
festivals,  the  gathering  of  whole  nations  at  their 
common  shrines,  in  the  later  more  democratic 
days.  This  impression  is  confirmed  by  the 
passage  in  the  great  Apollo-hymn  {infra,  p.  134), 
describing  the  gathering  of  the  lonians  on  Delos. 
And  these  very  verses,  which  are  quoted  by 
Thucydides  (ii.  104,  3)  unquestioniugly  as 
Homeric,  probably  are,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  among 
the  oldest,  if  not  the  very  oldest,  in  our  collection. 
Yet  even  they  are  evidently  much  later  than  the 
royal  Achaian  days. 


The  Homeric  Hymns.         109 

It  is  noticeable  that  Thucydides  there  calls  the 
poem,  not  a  hymn,  but  a  prelude  (prooimion) . 
Preludes,  then,  for  the  most  part,  these  Hymni 
Homerici  are ;  all  later  than  the  great  epics,  and 
probably  extending  through  several  centuries,  at 
least  to  the  close  of  the  Attic  period.  In  length 
they  vary  from  three  lines  to  nearly  six  hundred. 
They  borrow  verses  and  passages  very  freely  from 
each  other.  In  particular,  number  twelve,  only 
three  lines  long,  is  a  tribute  to  Persephone's 
mother.     The  opening  verse — 

"  First  Demeter  I  sing,  the  fair-tressed  reverend  goddess," 

is  identical  with  the  first  hexameter  in  the  great 
Eleusinian  hymn  (number  four).  The  second 
line — 

"  Her  and  her  daughter  as  well,   most    beautiful   Perse- 
phoneia," 

is,  again,  seemingly  borrowed  from  ver.  493  of 
the  larger  poem,  with  a  mere  change  of  case. 
The  closing  strain — 

"Hail,  0   goddess,   protect  this  town.      And    begin    our 
singing," 

is  no  great  tour  de  force :  and  when  we  find  this 


110    The  Successors  of  Homer. 

too,  verbatim,  in  another  hymn  to  Demeter — 
composed  by  the  learned  Alexandrian  poet, 
Callimachos — we  begin  to  question  whether  our 
modest  triplet  had  any  separate  inspiration  at 
all !  Though  an  extreme,  this  is  no  isolated  case. 
And  while  the  hymns  borrow  so  freely  of  each 
other,  nearly  all  are  more  or  less  dependent  on 
the  Homeric  epic.  One  of  the  liveliest,  in  par- 
ticular, the  hymn  to  Aphrodite  which  describes 
her  love  for  Anchises,  is  largely  a  mere  cento,  or 
patchwork,  line  after  line  being  borrowed,  little 
or  not  at  all  changed,  from  Homer,  but  also  in 
some  cases  from  Hesiod,  the  great  Demeter-hymn, 
and  others. 

Leaving,  however,  one  or  two  of  the  "great" 
hymns  for  separate  discussion,  we  will  pass  in 
review,  in  the  x^resent  chapter,  some  typical 
examples  of  the  briefer  hymns,  or  preludes 
proper.  Though  Pindar  speaks  of  such  pre- 
ludes as  addressed  oftenest  to  Zeus,  only  one, 
of  the  briefest  and  weakest,  in  our  collection, 
is  directed  to  him  by  name.  It  has  but  four 
verses,  and  may  be  thus  rendered — with  some 
dilution : — 


The  Homeric  Hymns.        Ill 

"Zeus  will  I  sing  of,  among  all  gods  most  mighty  and 
greatest. 

Wide-eyed,  ruling  the  world,  whose  wishes  afar  are  accom- 
plished, 

Who,  as  he  sits  with  Themis,  engages  in  chat  confidential. 

Be  propitious,  oh  wide-eyed  Zeus,  most  famous  and 
mighty ! " 

As  a  fairer  type  of  the  lesser  hymns  we  may 
render  entire  the  twenty-fourth,  which  consists 
of  seven  lines.  Incidentally,  the  close  kinship 
with  the  prelude  of  Hesiod's  Theogony  {siipra, 
p.  83)  may  be  noted.  One  poet  or  the  other  has 
borrowed  quite  too  freely. 

"  I  with  the  Muses  first  will  begin,  and  Zeus,  and  Apollo, 
Since  those  men  from  the  Muses  come,  and  Apollo  the 

Archer, 
Whoso  upon  our  earth  are  the  singers  of  songs,  and  the 

harpers. 
Kings  are  come  from  Zeus,     Yet  blest  is  he  whom  the 

Muses 
Love,  and  sweet  is  the  liquid  speech  from  his  lip  that  is 

flowing. 
Greeting,  children  of  Zeus !  and  grant  to  my  minstrelsy 

honour ; 
I  of  you,  and,  as  well,  of  another  song,  will  be  mindful." 

Such  a  closing  line,  with  its  plain  transition  to 


112     The  Successors  of  Homer. 

the  epic  recitation  that  followed,  is  frequently, 
but  not  invariably,  found  in  these  hymns.  In- 
deed the  question  has  been  raised  whether  some 
may  not  be  rather  post-lndes,  since  the  gods 
especially  concerned  were  doubtless  often  invoked 
at  the  end  no  less  than  at  the  beginning,  as  our 
number  twenty  remarks : — 

"  Phoebos,  the  swan  of  thee  sings  sweetly  under  his  feathers, 
Leaping  up  to  the  banlj.  at  the  side  of  tlie  eddying  river, 
By  the  Peneios.      The   minstrel,  holding  the  clear-toned 

phorminx, 
Sweet-voiced  sings  of  thee  at  the  end  and  beginning.     Oh 

ruler, 
Be  thou  therefore  gracious,  for  thee  do  I  honour  in  singing." 

Once,  at  least,  in  a  brief  hymn  (No.  5)  to 
Aphrodite,  the  rhapsode  closes  with  a  distinct 
mention  of  a  contest  (aytov)  about  to  occur, 
praying  for  victory  therein. 

It  is  not  often  easy  to  detect  any  especial 
fitness,  in  these  rather  formal  invocations,  to  any 
particular  section  of  the  great  epics,  which  the 
minstrel  may  have  recited  immediately  there- 
after. Possibly  the  singer,  when  about  to  repeat, 
for  instance,  the  glorious  Sixth  Iliad, — including 


The  Homeric  Hymns.        113 

the  scene  where  the  matrons  of  the  city,  so  justly 
doomed,  march  in  vain  to  Pallas's  temple  with 
their  suppliant  gifts, — may  have  chosen,  or  even 
composed,  the  brief  but  earnest  prelude  numbered 
XI.  in  our  collection : — 

"  Pallas  Athene  first  will  I  sing,  the  preserver  of  cities, 
Terrible,  who  to  the  works  of  war  is  with  Ares  devoted— 
Cities  falling  in  ruin,  the  shouting,  and  tumult  of  battle. 
She,  too,  saveth  the  host,  when  issuing  forth  or  returning. 
Greeting,  oh  goddess,  to  thee !     Prosperity  grant  me,  and 
fortune." 

But,  as  a  rule,  we  can  only  surmise  that  the 
god  of  the  festival  day,  or  the  god  in  whose 
sacred  close  the  minstrel  stood,  was  thus  pro- 
pitiated before  the  epic  recital  itself  was  entered 
upon. 

The  larger  poems  of  the  collection  are  no 
longer  mere  invocations.  They  contain  entire 
myths,  usually  adventures  of  the  gods  they 
honour.  Some  critics  indeed  would  assign 
certain  poems  in  the  group  to  comparatively 
secular  rather  than  religious  occasions — if  such 
a  distinction  can  be  made  at  all  in  Hellenic  life. 
Thus    the    amour    of    Aphrodite    and    Anchises 

I 


114    The  Successors  of  Homer. 

certainly  does  the  goddess  little  honour,  and  it 
has  been  suggested  that  the  poem  upon  her  was 
perhaps  rather  a  courtly  compliment  to  some 
prince,  in  the  Troad  or  elsewhere,  claiming 
descent  from  that  illustrious  pair.  It  would,  in 
fact,  be  easy  to  drop  the  last  two  of  its  two 
hundred  and  ninety-four  verses,  wherein  the 
singer  greets  the  goddess,  and  announces  that  he 
passes  from  her  to  "  another  hymn."  (The  word 
hymnos,  however,  used  here  and  often,  probably 
had  at  first  no  especial  religious  connection.  It 
seems  to  be  derived  from  the  verb  which  signifies 
"  to  weave,"  and  may  have  meant  a  "  woven  song," 
or  composition,  in  any  key.  Later  it  was  chiefly 
restricted  to  the  Apollo-cult.) 

These  poems  are,  it  is  thought,  not  only  cen- 
turies apart  in  age,  but  equally  diverse  in  local 
origin,  each  arising,  as  a  rule,  not  far  from  the 
chief  shrine  of  the  god  it  celebrates.  Yet  the 
differences  generally  elude  any  save  microscopic 
analysis. 

Thus  scholars  disagree  whether  the  delightful 
hymn  to  Pan  (No.  18)  betrays  its  Athenian 
origin  by  peculiarities  of  diction.     If  Attic,  it  is 


The  Homeric  Hymns.         115 

probably  late,  as  Herodotos  makes  I'au,  wlien 
aiding  the  Athenians  against  Xerxes,  complain  that 
they  never  theretofore  worshipped  or  honoured 
him.  (Lovers  of  Browning,  or  of  Herodotos,  will 
recall  the  tale  of  Pheidippides  in  this  connection.) 
The  questions  of  language  here  raised  involve 
such  niceties  as  the  use  of  nymphe  (nymph)  in 
the  sense  of  daughter,  and  of  tithene  (nurse)  for 
mother.  Such  evidence  will  weigh  but  lightly 
with  those  of  us  who  know  how  hard  it  is  to 
ascertain  whether  a  certain  word  or  usage  is  at 
the  present  moment  limited  to  Old  or  New 
England ! 

It  is  doubtless  the  imperial  mastership  of 
Homer — that  is,  of  Ionic  epic — that  has  enforced 
here,  as  so  widely  elsewhere,  the  outward  uni- 
formity of  dialect  and  vocabulary.  Yet  within 
and  beneath  these  forms  there  is  a  wide  diversity 
in  feeling,  in  scale,  and  in  the  point  of  view.  In 
the  midst  of  the  great  Apollo  hymn,  even,  the 
centre  of  interest  shifts  so  completely  from  Delos 
to  Pytho,  that  most  scholars  divide  the  traditional 
text,  and  offer  us  two  poems,  each  presumably  of 
local  origin,  to  the  Delian  and  the  Delphic  god 


116    The  Successors  of  Homer. 

(see  infra,  pp.  125,  ff.).  So  the  stately  figure  of 
the  Mourning  Mother,  in  the  Eleusinian  poem,  is 
a  type  of  maternity  remote  indeed  from  the 
nymph  who  in  this  very  hymn  to  Pan,  united 
with  Hermes,  bore  the  child — 

"  Goat-footed,  doubly-horned,  sweet-laughing,  delighting  in 
uproar," 

and,  straightway,  on  beholding  liiui — 

"Leaped  to  her  feet  and  fled,  deserting   her  infant   un- 
nourished." 

"  Probably  rather  late,"  I  regret  to  say,  is  the 
general  verdict  also  on  the  delightful  hymn, 
Dionysos,  or  the  Pirates,  which  Andrew  Lang 
has  rendered  in  masterly  prose.  The  ill-starred 
attack  on  the  youthful  god,  with  his  sportive 
transformation  of  his  assailants  into  dolphins,  is 
often  represented  in  works  of  art,  notably  in  the 
Bacchic  frieze  of  the  Lysicrates  Monument,  the 
most  beautiful  little  structure  in  Athens.  This 
building  was  itself  a  memorial  of  a  victory  gained 
in  the  Dionysiac  theatre,  though  not  in  a 
dramatic  contest.  We  may,  perhaps,  set  here 
a  version  already  published. 


The  Homeric  Hymns.        117 

"DIONYSOS,   OR  THE  PIEATES. 

"  Glorious  Semele's  child  I  will  summon  to  mind,  Dionysos ; 
How  he  appeared  on  the  brink  of  the  sea  forever  unresting, 
On  a  projecting  crag,  assuming  the  guise  of  a  stripling 
Blooming  in  youth ;  and  in  beauty  his  dark  hair  floated 

about  him. 
Purple  the  cloak   he  was   wearing   across  his  vigorous 

shoulders. 

"  Presently  hove  in  sight  a  band  of  Tyrrhenian  pirates, 
Borne  in  a  well-rowed   vessel  along  the   wine-coloured 

waters. 
Hither    their  evil    destiny  guided  them.      When    they 

beheld  him, 
Unto  each  other  they  nodded ;   then  forth  they  darted, 

and  straightway 
Seized  him,  and  haled  him  aboard  their  vessel,  exultant 

in  spirit, 
Since  they  thought  him  a  child  of  kings,  who  of  Zeus  are 

supported. 
Then  were  they  eager  to  bind  him  in  fetters  that  could 

not  be  sundered. 
Yet  was  he  held  not  with  bonds,  for  off  and  afar  did  the 

osiers 
Fall  from  his  hands  and  feet,  and  left  him  sitting  and 

smiling 
Out  of  his  dusky  eyes  !     But  when  their  pilot  beheld  it, 
Straightway  uplifting  his  voice,  he  shouted  aloud  to  his 

comrades : 


118    The  Successors  of  Homer. 

'  Madmen  !    Who  is  this  god  ye  would  seize  and  control 

with  your  fetters  ? 
Mighty  is  he !     Our  well-rowed  ship  is  unable  to  hold  him. 
Verily  this  is  Zeus,  or  else  it  is  archer  Apollo, 
Or,  it  may  be,  Poseidon, — for  nowise  perishing  mortals 
Does  he  resemble,  but  gods  who  make  their  home  on 

Olympos. 
Bring  him,  I  pray  you,  again  to  the  darksome  shore,  and 

release  him 
Straightway.     Lay  not  a   finger  upon   him,  lest  in  his 

anger 
He  may  arouse  the  impetuous  gusts,  and  the  furious  storm - 

wind.' 

"  Thus  he  spoke,  but  the  captain,  in  words  of  anger,  assailed 
him : 
'  Fellow,  look  to  the  wind,  and  draw  at  the  sail  of  the 

vessel. 
Holding  the  cordage  in  hand :  we  men  will  care  for  the 

captive. 
He  shall  come,  as  I  think,  to  Egypt,  or  may  be  to  Cyprus, 
Or  to  the  Hyperboreans,  or  farther,  and  surely  shall  tell  us 
Finally  who  are  his  friends,  and  reveal  to  us  all  his  pos- 
sessions. 
Name  us  his  brethren  too :  for  a  god  unto  us  has  betrayed 
him.' 

"  So  had  he  spoken,  and  hoisted  his  mast  and  the  sail  of 
his  vessel. 
Fairly  upon  their  sail  was  blowing  a  breeze,  and  the  cordage 


The  Homeric  Hymns.        119 

Tightened:  and  presently  then  most  wondrous  chances 
befell  them. 

First  of  all  things,  wine  through  the  black  impetuous 
vessel, 

Fragrant  and  sweet  to  the  taste,  was  trickling  ;  the  odour 
ambrosial 

Kose  in  the  air  ;  and  terror  possessed  them  all  to  behold  it. 

Presently  near  to  the  top  of  the  sail  a  vine  had  extended, 

Winding  hither  and  hither,  with  many  a  cluster  de- 
pendent. 

Eound  and  about  their  mast  an  ivy  was  duskily  twining, 

Kicli  in  its  blossoms,  and  fair  was  the  fruit  that  had  risen 
u^jon  it. 

Every  rowlock  a  garland  wore. 


"  And  when  they  beheld  this 
Instantly  then  to  the  pilot  they  shouted  to  hurry  the 

vessel 
Near  to  the  land ;  but  the  god  appeared  as  a  lion  among 

them. 
Terrible,  high  on  the  bow,  and   loudly  he  roared ;   and 

amidships 
Made  he  appear  to  their  eyes  a  shaggy-necked  bear  as  a 

portent. 
Eagerly  rose  she  erect,  and  high  on  the  prow  was  the 

lion, 
Eying  them  grimly  askance.     To  the  stern  they  darted  in 

terror. 
There,  at  the  side  of  the  pilot,  the  man  of  wiser  perception. 


120     The  Successors  of  Homer. 

Dazed  and  affrighted  they  stood ;   and,  suddenly  leaping 

upon  them, 
On  their  captain  he  seized.     They,  fleeing  from  utter 

destruction, 
Into  the  sacred  water  plunged,  as  they  saw  it,  together, 
Turning  to  dolphins.    The  god,  for  the  pilot  having  com- 
passion, 
Held  him  back,  and  gave  him  happiness,   speaking  as 

follows : 
*  Have  no  fear,  oh  innocent  suppliant,  dear  to  my  spirit. 
Semele's  offspring  am  I,  Dionysos,  the  leader  in  revels. 
Born  of  the  daughter   of  Cadmos,  to   Zeus   in   wedlock 

united.' 
— Greeting,  oh  child  of  the  fair-faced  Semele  !     Never  the 

minstrel 
Who  is  forgetful  of  thee    may  fashion   a   song   that  is 

pleasing ! " 

This  may  be  described  as  the  longest  of  the 
short  hymns,  or  as  the  least  of  the  "  great "  ones. 
Though,  perhaps,  still  too  brief  for  independent 
recitation,  this  tale  certainly  exceeds  the  limits 
of  a  mere  formal  invocation.  Its  Attic  origin  is 
generally  conceded.  May  it  not  have  been  used 
as  a  sort  of  "  prologue  in  the  theatre,"  to  use  the 
phrase  applied  by  Goethe  to  a  very  different 
performance  ? 

Certainly  such  tales  as  this  regarding  Dionysos, 


The  Homeric  Hymns.        121 

first  sung  and  danced  in  mimicry,  then  elaborated 
into  dialogues,  were  the  earliest  materials  for 
the  action  in  Athenian  tragedy.  Indeed,  the 
adventures  of  Dionysos  were  probably  —  not 
merely  the  favourite  but — the  only  permissible 
subjects  in  early  dramas.  Even  in  the  Periclean 
age,  the  popular  voice  demanded  that  every 
dramatist  retain,  at  least  in  the  chorus  of  an 
obligatory  afterpiece,  the  sportive  satyrs,  who  in 
the  Lysicratean  frieze,  and  other  versions,  are 
seen  sharing  this  very  escapade  with  their 
master.  A  curious  idiom  of  later  Attic  recalls 
this  earlier  devotion  of  the  drama  to  Bacchos 
alone.  Against  any  unseemly  digression  or  dis- 
cursiveness, no  matter  where,  the  criticism  was 
worded,  ov^lv  irpbg  Aiowaov  ! — "  That's  nothing 
to  do  with  Dionysos ! "  These  considerations 
alone  might  justify  our  recalling  this  earliest 
adequate  glimpse  of  the  merry  wine-god.  The 
earliest,  we  say,  for  in  Homer  he  appears 
only  very  slightly,  fleeing  in  terror  before  a 
mortal,  the  Thracian  king  Lycurgus.  And  with 
wine  he  had  in  Homer's  mind  probably  no 
close  connection.     At  least,  the  wondrous  liquor 


122     The  Successors  of  Homer. 

which  laid  Polyphemos  low  was  a  gift  to 
Odysseus, — not  from  a  Bacchic  source  at  all, 
but  from  Apollo's  priest.  Here  again  we  chance 
upon  another  reminder  of  the  un-Homeric — and 
post-Homeric — origin  of  these  poems. 

We  have  been  led  on  to  indicate  the  especial 
importance  of  this  poem  as  a  crosslight  upon 
the  Dionysiac  drama.  But  each  sustained  hymn 
in  our  collection  is  similarly  a  valuable  original 
document  for  the  history  of  Greek  worship  and 
myth.  In  this  regard  they  form  a  quarry  which 
has  hardly  been  duly  worked. 

Perhaps  the  most  important  poem  in  the  series 
which  has  not  yet  been  mentioned  at  all  is  the 
merry  account  of  Hermes'  precocious  infancy 
and  thievish  pranks.  This  has  been  freely,  and 
delightfully,  translated  by  the  poet  Shelley.  It 
is  a  pity  this  unique  genius  did  not  leave  us 
a  version  of  the  Demeter  hymn  as  well.  In 
some  of  its  characteristics,  such  as  the  con- 
sciousness of  marvellous  life  astir  in  all  nature, 
and  in  rapturous  love  for  flowers,  it  would  have 
been  especially  congenial  to  him.  Or,  perhaps, 
we   should  rather  say,  that  Shelley's  ethereally 


The  Homeric  Hymns.         128 

sensitive  nature  enabled  him  to  reproduce  some 
phases  of  Greek  feeling  from  which  most  modern 
men,  even  of  poetic  soul,  are  alienated  by  their 
more  artificial  life.  But  Shelleys  are  rarely  to 
be  utilized  as  translators, — though  Mr.  Arnold 
thought  it  his  most  enduring  work ! 

As  a  whole,  these  Hymns,  with  their  allusions 
to  naive  early  myths,  and  hints  of  local  cults, 
should  attract  greater  interest,  especially  in  our 
time,  when  so  much  attention  is  being  drawn  to 
the  common  elements  in  all  earnest  religious 
creeds. 

Note. — This  body  of  poetry  offers  the  most  striking  illus- 
tration of  the  gaps  and  limitations  in  our  English  scholar- 
ship, to  which  Prof.  Mahaffy  calls  attention  so  wittily  and 
so  often.  There  is  no  edition  of  these  Greek  poems  with 
English  notes  for  the  student,  and  they  are  passed  by  in 
silence  in  the  two  best  popular  discussions  on  Hellenic 
poesy,  Symonds' "  Greek  Poets  "  and  Jebb's  "  Greek  Poetry  "  ! 
Mahaffy  himself  discusses  them  in  interesting  but  cursory 
fashion.  The  best  literary  translation  was  for  centuries 
the  free  Elizabethan  version  in  rhyme  by  George  Chapman 
—  the  same  man  whose  Iliad  Keats  has  made  doubly 
illustrious.  This  did  not,  of  course,  include  the  Demeter 
hymn,  which  was  rediscoverei  in  the  eighteenth  century. 
There  is  now  a  creditable,  but  little  known,  prose  version 


124     The  Successors  of  Homer. 

of  all  the  poems,  by  Edgar,  joublislied  in  Edinburgh  by 
James  Thin.  The  volume  of  Greek  text  with  helpful 
German  notes  by  Gemoll  (Leipsic,  1886)  has  not  fulfilled 
the  editor's  confident  expectation  of  displacing  Baumeister's 
edition  with  Latin  notes  (1860).  Both  are  useful.  Prof. 
Sterrett  (Ginn,  Boston)  has  edited  the  five  greater  hymns, 
printing  them  so  as  to  show  clearly  their  heavy  debt  to 
Homer.  An  important  critical  text  has  recently  appeared, 
and  perhaps  we  may  hope  for  a  student's  edition. 


(     125     ) 


V. 

THE    HOMEPJC    HYMN    TO    APOLLO. 

The  first  among  the  Homeric  Hymns  in  our 
collection  is  a  poem  addressed  to  Apollo,  in  546 
hexameters.  The  earlier  portion  (vers,  1-178) 
centres  about  Delos  as  the  chief  point  of  interest. 
The  latter  section,  again,  has  chiefly  to  do  with 
the  legends  of  Delphi.  Indeed,  nearly  all  recent 
editors  have  divided  the  hymn  into  two.  The 
exact  truth  as  to  the  original  form  can  hardly 
be  ascertained.  The  ancient  allusions  seem,  for 
the  most  part,  to  be  rather  to  a  single  poem. 
That  some  passages  have  been  inserted  where 
they  do  not  fit,  is  certain.  Perhaps  a  later 
attempt  was  made  to  incorporate  into  a  single 
frame  nearly  all  the  early  hymn-material  refer- 
ring to  the  Apollo-group.  The  great  antiquity  of 
some  passages  at  least,  and  the  intrinsic  interest 


126     The  Successors  of  Homer. 

of  the  subject,  will  justify  its  exposition  here. 
Incidentally,  some  of  the  sutures  and  abrupt 
transitions  may  be  indicated. 

The  opening  passage  itself  has  a  certain 
abruptness. 

"  I  will  remember  and  not  be  forgetful  of  archer  Apollo, 
Who  by  the  gods  is  dreaded  within  Zeus'  house  as  he 

enters. 
Straightway  all  of  them  leap  to  their  feet  as  he  nearer 

approaches, 
Out  of  their  seats,  so  soon  as  his  shining  weapons  he 

levels  "  (vers.  1-4). 

Then  occurs  a  sudden  change  of  tense  which 
may  be  merely  accidental.  Possibly  the  poet 
may  himself  have  hesitated  between  a  description 
of  Apollo's  first  appearance,  and  of  his  habitual 
entrance  among  the  immortals. 

"  Leto  only  remained,  with  Zeus  who  delights  in  the  thunder. 
She  indeed  unstrung  his  bow  and  covered  his  quiver. 
Then  with  her  hands  she  took  from  his  stalwart  shoulders 

his  weapons. 
These  at  the  side  of  a  column  she  hung,  in  the  hall  of  the 

father, 
Down  from  a  golden  peg.     To  a  chair  she  led  him  and  act 

him. 


The  Homeric  Hymn  to  Apollo.  127 

Then  in  a  golden  beaker  the  father  offered  him  nectar, 
Pledging    his   well-loved  son:   and  the   other  divinities 

likewise. 
There  they  were  seated  together  :  and  reverend  Leto  was 

joyful, 

Seeing  that  he  she  had  borne  was  a  valiant  god  and  an 
archer  "  (vers.  5-13). 

This  mention  of  Leto  has  apparently  drawn 
hither — perhaps  at  first  to  tlie  margin  only,  and 
then,  by  a  copyist's  error,  into  the  text — what 
looks  like  a  brief  separate  hymn  to  Leto,  certainly 
an  appeal  to  her  directly,  beginning — 

"  Hail,  oh    Leto   the  blessed,  for  glorious  children  thou 
barest "  (ver.  14). 

After  these  five  lines  (14-18)  we  come  to  an 
invocation  of  Apollo  himself,  with  an  opening 
verse  which  tends  to  justify  the  traditional  title 
of  "  hymns  "  for  this  whole  group  of  poems. 

"  How  may  I  hymn  thee  aright,  who  in  hymns  already 
aboundest  ? 
Everywhere,  0  Apollo,  the  pastures  of  song  are  extended : 
Over  the  mainland,  mother  of  cattle,  and  over  the  islands." 

(Vers.  19-21.) 


128     The  Successors  of  Homer. 

The  question  which  he  has  just  asked,  the  poet 
presently  answers  with  another — 

"  Shall  I  relate  how  Leto  did  bear  thee,  a  joy  unto  mortals  ? 
That   was  in  wavegirt  Delos.      The  darksome   billows, 

around  her. 
Driven  along  by  the  shrill-voiced  winds,  were  hurrying 

landward. 
Issuing  thence,  thou  among  all  mortal  men  art  a  ruler." 

(Vers.  25,  27-29.) 

We  naturally  suppose  the  copious  list  of 
Aegean  isles  and  seaward  cities,  next  recorded, 
indicates  the  wide  sway  of  Apollo.  Tliis  is 
indeed  indirectly  true,  perhaps,  though  the  long 
sentence  ends  unexpectedly  with  a  reach  back- 
ward. The  list  is  prevailingly  Ionic,  despite  its 
beginning. 

"  All  whoso  are  in  Crete  contained,  or  the  people  of  Athens, 
In  Euboea,  for  ships  renowned,  or  island  Aegina, — 
Or  upon  Thracian  Athos,  or  Pelion's  loftiest  summits. 
Or  in  Lesbos  the  holy,  abode  of  Aeolian  Makar, 
Chios,  that  brightest  of  islands  is  set  in  the  midst  of  the 

waters, 
Samos,  abounding  in  springs,  precipitous  Mycale's  sum- 
mits,— 
Ay,  and  in  Naxos  also,  and  Paros,  and  rocky  Uhcueia, 


The  Homeric  Hymn  to  Apollo.  129 

— Unto   them   all,  ere   Apollo  was   boru,  came  Leto  in 

travail, 
If  some  one  of  the  lands  might  offer  a  home  to  her  off- 
spring.* 
Greatly  affrighted  were  they,  and  quaked.     Not  one  of 

them  ventured. 
Even  the  richest,  to  proffer  a  shelter  for  Phoebos  Apollo. 
So  the  imperial  Leto  had  fared,  till  she  came  unto  Delos  : 
Then  these  winged  words  she  uttered,  and  asked  her  the 

question : 
'Delos,  art  thou  content  to  become  the  abode  of  my 

offspring, 
Phoebos  Apollo,  and  rear  to  his  honour  a  glorious  temple  ? 
Never  another  will  cleave  unto  thee,  nor  hold  thee  in 

honour. 
Nowise  rich  thou'lt  be,  as  I  deem,  in  sheep  or  in  cattle, 
Neither  abundant  the  vineyards,  nor  countless  the  trees 

thou  producest. 
Yet,  if   thou  bearest    upon  thee  a    temple  of    Archer 

Apollo, 
All  mankind  shall  bring  their  sacred  offerings  hither, 
Ever  abundant  for  thee  shall  the  odour  arise  of    the 

victims  ' "  (vers.  30-58). 

It  would  seem  that  some  prophetic  knowledge 
of  Apollo  and  his  character  had  spread  through 
Heaven  and  Earth,  or  at  least  had  reached  the 

*  Leto,  it  will  be  remembered,  is  persecuted  by  jealous 
Hera. 


130     The  Successors  of  Homer. 

knowledge  of  Delos, — whether  she  be  the  island, 
or  its  guardian-divinity,  or  an  inseparable  fusion 
of  both  in  one.  Such  imperfect  knowledge  of  the 
future  is  often  ascribed  to  the  Greek  gods.  The 
most  notable  case  is  Zeus'  peril  if  he  weds  Thetis, 
which  is  fully  made  known  only  to  Prometheus, 
through  his  mother  Themis,  the  seer.  Even 
Apollo  the  augur  trips  notably  in  this  very  poem 
(vide  infra,  pp.  143-145).  Such  strokes  are 
natural  wherever  men  delineate  gods  in  their 
own  likeness.  With  Delos'  prompt  consent  is 
mingled  one  note  of  dread,  inspired  by  her  own 
humility. 

"  Leto,  but  this  word,  only,  affrights  me,  nor  will  I  con- 
ceal it. 

Truly  they  say  that  Apollo  will  prove  exceedingly  haughty ; 

He  will  rule  as  a  mighty  monarch  among  the  immortal 

Gods,  and  mortal  men  who  abide  in  the  bounteous  corn- 
land. 

Therefore  greatly  affrighted  am  I  in  heart  and  in  spirit, 

Lest,  so  soon  as  Apollo,  thy  child,  shall  look  on  the  sun- 
shine. 

He,  in  contempt  of  the  island,  because  I  am  rugged  and 
rocky, 

Spurn  with  his  feet  and  into  the  briny  abysses  may 
plunge  me. 


The  Homeric  Hymn  to  Apollo.  131 

He  to  another  land  will  pass,  which  suiteth  his  pleasure. 
So  then  only  the  dusky  seals  and  polyps  within  me 
Their  untroubled  abode  will  make,  since   men  will   be 
lacking  "  (vers.  66-78). 

Leto  reassures  her,  with  the  most  sacred  oath 
of  gods — 

"  Earth  be  witness  now,  and  wide-spread  Heaven  above  us, 
Witness,  Styx,  with  thy  trickling  stream,  most  mighty 

and  holy 
Pledge  to  the  ever-blessed  gods  whose  life  is  eternal : 
Verily  here  shall  abide  the  enclosure  and  altar  of  Phoebos 
Ever,  and  thee  shall  he  hold  above  all  others  in  honour." 

(Vers.  84-88.) 

Leto's  travail  continues  nine  days  and  nights. 
She  is  consoled  by  the  other  female  divinities, 
but  the  goddess  whose  function  it  should  be  to 
relieve  her  is  detained  by  Hera  in  her  jealous 
rage.  Finally,  summoned  by  Iris  without  Hera's 
knowledge,  and  bribed  with  a  wondrous  necklace 
of  amber  and  gold  nine  cubits  long,  Eileithuia 
arrives.  Apollo  is  the  most  precocious  of 
children,  thanks  perhaps  in  part  to  the  nectar 
and  ambrosia  which  Themis  straightway  offers 
him  instead   of  his   mother's   milk.      Instantly 


132     The  Successors  of  Homer. 

bursting  his  swaddling-bands — doubtless  a  rather 
naive  indication  of  his  growth  in  a  moment  to 
full    stature  —  he    proclaims    to    the    admiring 

goddesses — 

"  Dear  unto  me  be  the  harp,  and  the  curving  bow  and  the 
arrows ; 
Yea,  and   the   truthful  counsel  of  Zeus  unto  men  will 
I  utter  "  (vers.  131, 132). 

So  Apollo  at  once  announces  himself  as  lord 
of  music,  of  archery,  and,  above  all,  of  prophecy 
to  men.  Delos  blossomed  all  over  with  golden 
flowers  in  her  joy,  and  felt  both  pride  in,  and 
affection  for,  her  stately  foster-child. 

Here,  again,  there  is  a  change  of  tense,  which 
brings  us,  with  hardly  a  breath  for  transition, 
into  the  poet's  own  day.  The  passage  which 
follows  is  largely  quoted,  with  slight  variations, 
by  Thucydides  (circ.  400  B.C.),  in  his  account 
of  Delos  (Time,  ii.  §  104).  It  is  interesting  to 
note  that  this  earliest  witness  cites  the  verses 
unquestioningly  as  Homer's,  and  that  the  poem 
from  wliich  they  are  taken  is  for  him  (despite 
its  length)  "the  prelude  of  Apollo."  Further 
evidence,  e.g.  imitations  by  Theognis  and  others, 


The  Homeric  Hymn  to  Apollo.  133 

strengthens  the  impression  that  this  is  among 
the  oldest,  if  not  the  oldest,  of  all  the  hymns. 
Nevertheless,  the  moment  we  approach  (as  at 
present)  any  definite  and  realistic  picture  of 
human  life,  we  see  at  once  that  we  are  in  an 
age  much  later  than  the  Homeric  period  proper. 
The  change  of  tense  we  just  mentioned  occurs 
after  three  lines. 

"  Thou,  oh  lord  of  the  silvern  bow,  Far-shooter  Apollo, 
Sometimes  over  the  slopes  didst  march   of  precipitous 

Cyuthos, 
Sometimes  thou  didst  fare  to  the  dwellings  of  men  and  the 

temples. 
Dear  all  outlooks  are  unto  thee,  and  the  lofty  mountains' 
Topmost  peaks,  and  the  rivers  that  down  to  the  sea  are 

descending. 
More  than  in  all,  oh  Phoebos,  thy  heart  is  in  Delos  delighted, 
Where  in  their  trailing  robes  unto  thee  the  lonians  gather. 
They  themselves,  and  their  modest  wives  as  well,  and  the 

children. 
There  they  do  honour  to  thee  with  boxing,  dancing,  and 

singing  "  (vers.  140-149). 

All  manly  rivalry,  tending  to  perfect  the 
heroic  virtues,  is  to  the  Greek  essentially  pious. 
Pindar  sings  rapturously  of  the  cock,  who  fights 


134     The  Successors  of  Homer. 

for  no  baser  motive  than  mere  love  of  victory ; 
and  a  cock-fight  has  a  prominent  place  among 
the  carvings  on  the  high-priest's  marble  chair 
in  the  Athenian  theatre. 

"  So  they   take    their    delight,  whenever  the   games  are 

appointed. 
One  would  believe  them  to  be  immortal  and  ageless  for 

ever, 
Whoso  met  them,  when  the  lonians  gather  together. 
Then  he  the  charm  of  them  all  would  behold,  and  delight 

in  their  spirit. 
Seeing  the  men  of  the  race,  and  the  women  gracefully 

girdled. 
Fleet  are  the  vessels  they  bring  as  well,  and  many  the 

treasures. 
— This  is  a  marvel,  too,  whose  glory  never  may  perish. 
Even  the  Delian  maids,  attendant  on  Archer  Apollo." 

(Vers.  150-157.) 

This  singer  has  evidently  left  far  behind  him 
— or  never  knew — the  haughty  monarchs,  the 
subservient  folk,  of  the  Homeric  age.  Here  we 
have  no  royal  and  courtly  ceremonial,  surely. 
These  are  the  sports,  this,  too,  is  the  poet,  of 
a  free  people.  It  is  interesting  that  the  very 
next  lines  touch  upon  that  same  custom  of  the 


The  Homeric  Hymn  to  Apollo.  135 

"prelude,"  out  of  which  all  these  poems  may 
have  arisen. 

"When  they  first  have  uttered  in  hymns  their  praise  of 

Apollo, 
Next  is  Leto's  turn,  and  Artemis,  hurler  of  arrows. 
Then  they  remember  the  heroes  of  ancient  days,  and  the 

women, 
Singing  their  hymn  :  and  the  tribes  of  mortal  men  are 

enchanted"  (vers.  158-161). 

That  is,  the  invocation  of  the  local  gods  must 
precede  the  epic  recital,  the  tales  of  demigods 
and  heroines.  The  use  of  "  hymn  "  for  the  latter 
poetry  also,  however,  is  a  timely  reminder,  how 
little  our  distinction  between  secular  and  religious 
would  mean  to  an  ancient  Greek,  of  the  earlier 
or  the  later  time.  Helen,  the  daughter  of  Zeus, 
or  Odysseus,  the  especial  charge  of  Athene,  was 
a  subject  quite  as  fitting  for  the  holy  festival  as 
was  the  direct  invocation  of  Pallas  or  her  sire 
which  preceded  it. 

The  next  three  lines  are  strange  and  curious  : — 

"  Speech  of  all  mankind,  and  even  their  castanets'  rattle 
They  can  mimic,  and  every  man  would  say  that  he  heard 

them 
Speak  his  speech :  so  fairly  and  well  is  their  minstrelsy 
fitted"  (vers.  162-164). 


136     The  Successors  of  Homer. 

Whether  the  "rattle  of  the  castanets"  means 
the  musical  accompaniment  generally,  or  only 
the  rhythm,  the  te7niD0  of  the  dance  and  song, 
which  might  vary  perceptibly  from  island  to 
island,  or  town  to  town,  is  hard  to  decide.  The 
Christian  reader  will  be  involuntarily  reminded 
of  the  tongues  of  Pentecost. 

After   a   single   line  addressed  to  the  gods  of 
Delos — 

"  Come,  be  thou,  oh  Apollo,  together  with  Artemis,  gracious  " 

(ver.  164), 

the  singer  suddenly  turns  directly  to  his  own 
special  audience  of  Delian  maidens.  Why  the 
women  are  his  chief  or  sole  auditors  is  not  made 
plain.  Thucydides'  words  are :  "  That  there  was 
a  contest  in  music,  and  that  they  used  to  come 
to  contend  with  each  other,  he  (Homer)  again 
makes  clear  in  those  verses  which  are  from  the 
same  prelude.  Tor,  hymning  the  Delian  chorus 
of  women,  he  ended  his  eulogy  in  these  lines, 
wherein  he  also  mentioned  himself, — 

" '  Greeting  unto  you  all :  and  be  ye  of  me  hereafter 

Mindful,  when  some  other  of  men  that  on  earth  have 
abiding 


The  Homeric  Hymn  to  Apollo.  137 

Hither  may  come,  an  outworn  stranger,  and  ask  you  the 

question : 
"Oh,   ye  maidens,  and  who  for  you  is   the  sweetest  of 

minstrels. 
Whoso  hither  doth  come,  in  whom  ye  most  are  delighted  ?  " 
Then  do  ye  all,  I  pray,  with  one  voice  answer  and  tell  him, 
"  Blind  is  the  man,  and  in  Chios  abounding  in  crags  is  his 

dwelling. 
He  it  is  whose  songs  shall  all  be  supreme  in  the  future." ' " 

(Vers.  166-173.) 

Here  Thucydides'  quotation  ends,  but  a  few- 
lines  complete  what  the  editors  regard  as  the 
"  Delian  hymn."  The  singer  declares  that  he 
will  spread  his  own  fame  through  the  wide  world. 
The  close  may  be  rendered — 

"  Yet  will  I  not  cease  from  hymning  the  archer  Apollo, 
Lord  of  the  silvern  bow,  who  is  offspring  of  fair-tressed 
Leto"  (vers.  177,  178). 

This  not  too  modest  old  man  has,  at  this 
moment,  little  in  common  with  the  elder  epic 
poet,  who  could  so  effectively  conceal  his  own 
identity,  while  unrolling  before  us  the  splendid 
tapestry  of  Trojan  story.  And  he  who,  standing 
on  the  mound  of  Hissarlik,  or  at  the  extinct 
crater's  edge  on  topmost  Ida,  still  listens  to  the 


138     The  Successors  of  Homer. 

idle  tale  of  Homer's  blindness,  must  himself  be 
hopelessly  blind — and  deaf  as  well !  Yet  this 
passage  is  the  probable  starting-point  of  two 
persistent  legends  concerning  Homer:  that  he 
was  of  Chios,  and  that  he  was  blind. 

In  turning  away  from  Delos,  we  may  mention 
the  only  earlier  allusion  to  the  island.  Odysseus, 
flattering  Nausicaa,  likens  her  to  a  graceful 
young  palm  he  had  seen  shooting  up  beside 
Apollo's  Delian  altar :  "  For  thither  also  I 
came,"  he  adds,  "  and  much  folk  with  me."  * 


Perhaps  we  should  ask  our  printer  to  do 
outward  homage  to  the  prevailing  editorial 
judgment,  that  divides  the  great  hymn  at  the 
point  now  reached — the  one  hundred  and  seventy- 
eighth  verse.  That  the  poets — or  one  poet — 
seemed  to  take  farewell  of  the  song  here,  may 
fairly  be  conceded.  One  late  author,  Aristides 
(ii.  558),  citing  this  same  passage,  says  positively, 
"  Talking  with  the  Delian  maids,  and  closing 
the     Prooimion."     Many    think,    however,    that 

*  Odyssey,  bk.  vi.,  vers.  162-lGi.     "  Art  aud  Humanity  in 
Homer,"  p.  221. 


The  Homeric  Hymn  to  Apollo.  139 

Aristides  merely  had  Thucydides  before  him, 
and  cited  without  knowledge  of  the  hymn  at 
first  hand.    (Cf.  GemoU,  p.  114.) 

Nevertheless,  the  text  as  it  lies  before  us 
hardly  makes  it  easy  to  start  the  new  and  inde- 
pendent Delphic  hymn  which  we  next  expect. 
When  Xenophon's  Hellenic  history  begins,  "  But 
after  that,"  we  say,  "  He  is  continuing  Thucy- 
dides," or  "A  leaf  has  been  lost"  —  or  both. 
Little  better  is  the  case  here.  The  next  three  verses 
seem  to  form  a  strophe  by  themselves,  but  while 
neither  a  beginning  nor  a  closing  strain,  they  do 
equally  little  to  bridge  the  transition  to  Delphi — 

"  Lycia,  oh  Lord,  and  lovely  Maeonia  own  thy  dominion  ; 
Over  Miletos  thou  rulest,  the  sea-washed  city  of  longing  ; 
Monarch  art  thou,  as  well,  of  Delos  girt  by  the  waters." 

(Vers.  179-181.) 

Next  we  find  a  passage  of  twenty-five  lines 
tolerably  complete  in  itself.  Apollo,  playing 
the  lyre,  and  clad  in  fragrant  robes,  comes  to 
"rocky  Pytho."  This  mention  of  Delphi  seems 
timely ;  but  in  an  instant  more — 

"  Thence  from  earth  to  Olympos,  as  swift  as  a  thought,  he 
departed"  (ver.  186). 


140     The  Successors  of  Homer. 

There,  in  Zens'  abode,  is  a  rather  over-crowded 
assemblage  of  the  gods  to  whom — 

"  All  of  the  Muses  together,  with  beautiful  voices,  responsive 
Sang  of  the  wondrous  gifts  of  the  gods,  and  the  sorrows 

of  mortals : 
What  they  endure  at  the  hands  of  gods  whose  life  is 

eternal. 
How  they  live  in  folly  and  feebleness,  wholly  unable 
Safeguard  against  old  age,  or  a  cure  for  death,  to  discover." 

(Vers.  189-193.) 

Those  familiar  with  Greek  poetry  of  any  age 
will  not  be  wholly  surprised  at  this  discordant 
note  of  pessimism.  We  may  suppose  the  theme 
is  an  agreeable  one,  to  divine  and  immortal 
hearers.     Amid  this  throng  of — 

"  Fair-tressed  Graces  and  fair-minded  Hours"  (ver.  194), 

Artemis   is    stateliest  in   the   dance,    while   the 
harper  ApoUo  is  the  leader  of  all, — 

"  Stepping  graceful  and  high,  and  the  splendour  glimmers 
about  him, 
Flash  of  the  gleaming  feet,  and  of  garments  cunningly 
woven  "  (vers.  202,  203). 

The  hearts  of  his  parents,  Leto  and  Zeus,  are 
filled  with  pride.     If  the  poet  had  set  himself  the 


The  Homeric  Hymn  to  Apollo.  141 

task  of  outdoing  the  earlier  singer  who  revealed 
to  us  the  more  quiet  scene  in  Olympos  at  Apollo's 
first  arrival  {swpra,  vers.  1-13),  he  has  succeeded  ; 
but  Delphi  is  quite  forgotten.  Indeed  the  later 
quest  of  Apollo  makes  it  clear  that  the  allusion  to 
Pytho  at  this  point  is  out  of  place. 

The  poem  pauses  and  hesitates,  as  it  were, 
repeating  the  query  already  familiar — 

"  How  may  I  hymn  thee  aright,  who  in  hymns  already 
aboundest  ?  "  (ver.  207  =  ver.  19). 

Omitting  the  six  most  corrupt  and  hopeless 
verses,  in  which  the  suggestion  is  feebly  made  that 
Apollo's  amours  might  be  the  best  subject  for 
song,  we  accept  the  nobler  alternative : — 

"  Or  shall  I  rather  relate  how  first.  Far-shooter  AidoUo, 
Thou  over    earth   didst  wander,  for    mortals  an  oracle 

seeking  ? 
Thou  in  Pieria  first  didst  make  thy  descent  from  Olym- 
pos "  (vers.  214-216). 

Now,  at  last,  the  real  current  of  the  poem 
begins  to  run,  and  the  stately  march  toward  the 
Pythian  fane  may  well  be  a  far-off  reminiscence 
of  the  time  when  the  Apollo-worship,  the  fairest 


142     The  Successors  of  Homer. 

flower  of  early  Greek  civilization,  was  indeed 
borne  reverently  on  to  southward,  from  hill  to 
hill,  from  commune  to  commune,  till  it  rested  for 
a  thousand  years  on  rocky  Pytho.  Descending 
through  Thessaly,  the  route  runs  across  Euboea 
to  Boeotia.  The  passage  is  by  no  means  a  bare 
unpoetical  catalogue.  Thus  the  extreme  antiquity 
of  Apollo's  progress  is  effectively  indicated  when 
Boeotia  is  reached — 

"Nest  thou  wert  come  to  the  site  of  Thebe,  covered  by 
forests ; 
None  among  mortal  men  were  as  yet  in  Thebe  abiding, 
Nay,  there  were  yet  no  beaten  paths  to  be  seen,  nor  a  high- 
way 
Over  the  plain  so  rich  in  wheat,  but  only  the  woodland. 
Thence  thou  upon  thy  way  didst  fare,  Far-shooter  Apollo." 

(Vers.  225-229.) 

Apollo  is  seeking  a  fit  site  for  his  temple  and  a 
place  of  prophecy,  and  this  last  oft-repeated  line 
is  doubtless  an  imitation  of  the  verse  which 
becomes  almost  a  refrain  in  the  niath  book  of  the 
Odyssey : 

"  Thence  did  we  fare  on  our  way,  exceedingly  troubled  in 
spirit "  (Odys.  ix.  62, 105,  5G5  ;  x.  133). 


The  Homeric  Hymn  to  Apollo.  143 

The  chief  pause  of  Apollo  is  near  "grassy 
Haliartos"  and  "many-towered  Ocalea,"  at  the 
spring  Delphousa,  or  Telphousa.  The  resemblance 
of  this  name  to  Delphi  probably  gave  a  starting- 
point  for  the  myth-makers,  or  even  stimulated 
the  invention  of  our  poet,  who  has  himself,  as 
we  shall  see,  an  unpoetic  penchant  toward  etymo- 
logy. Some  grass-grown  prehistoric  foundations 
without  superstructure,  and  the  overarching 
natural  rock  from  which  the  spring  appears  to 
struggle  forth,  would  help  to  explain  the  incident, 
if  explanation  be  desired. 

Apollo,  then,  is  so  charmed  by  the  spot,  that  he 
announces  to  Telphousa  his  intention  to  erect 
there  a — 

"  Beautiful  temple, 
Seat  of  an  oracle  for  mankind," 

which  will  be  a  place  of  general  resort  from  the 
Peloponnese,  the  mainland,  and  the  islands.  This 
is,  indirectly,  of  course,  a  sketch  of  what  Delphi 
has  become  at  the  time  when  this  hymn  is  com- 
posed. The  god  actually  lays  the  broad  founda- 
tions :  but  now,  for  some  reason  unexplained,  the 


144     The  Successors  of  Homer. 

nymph's  anger  is  aroused.  She  craftily  suggests, 
that  the  thronged  high-road,  evidently  near  at 
hand  (or  destined  to  exist  there),  the  noise  of 
teams  watering  their  mules  and  horses  at  her 
fountain,  will  distract  men's  thoughts  from  the 
temple  and  oracle,  which  demand  a  less  accessible 
and  more  peaceful  spot. 

"  Nay,  but  in  Crisa,  beneath  Parnassos'  ridges  erect  them. 
Never  the  din  of  the  beautiful  chariots  there  will  re-echo, 
Nor  will  the  clatter  of  steeds  ring  round  your  well-built 
altar  "  (vers.  269-271). 

Since  Apollo  accepts  this  reasoning  without 
question,  it  is  thought  the  verses  must  have  been 
composed  before  the  institution,  under  the  divine 
sanction,  of  periodical  chariot-races  at  Crisa  itself, 
which  is  assigned  to  about  the  year  580  B.C. 

To  his  final  abode  Apollo  now  quickly  makes 
his  way  : — 

"  Then   unto    Crisa,    beneath     snow-capt  Parnassos,   thou 

earnest. 
Westward  turned  is  the  mountain's  shoulder :  the  valley 

below  it 
Eough  and  hollow  extends,  underneath  the  o'ershadowing 

ledges  "  (vers.  282-28-i). 


The  Homeric  Hymn  to  Apollo.  145 

Announcing  the  glorious  future  of  his  shrine  in 
the  very  words  he  had  already  used  to  Telphousa, 
and  apparently  untroubled  by  the  grave  lapse 
from  prophetic  foresight  thus  so  plainly  exposed, — 

"  Phoebos  Apollo  set  the  foundations, 
Wide  and  exceedingly  far  extended,  straightway  ;  upon  them 
Laid  was  a  threshold  of  stone  by  Trophouios  and  Agamedes, 
Sons  of  Erginos,  and  dear  to  the  gods  whose  life  is  eternal. 
Round  it  a  temple  was  built  by  unnumbered  races  of  mortals, 
Fashioned  of  shapely  stones,  in  song  to  be  famous  for  ever." 

(Vers.  290,  299.) 

These  earliest  of  architects,  dear  to  Apollo  and 
the  other  immortals,  are  doubly  famous  through 
the  tale  of  their  end.  As  the  greatest  of  blessings, 
in  answer  to  their  prayer,  a  painless  death,  while 
asleep,  was  granted  to  them  both ;  still  another 
reminder  that  the  early  Greek  was  quite  too  wide- 
eyed  not  to  see  the  pathetic  side  of  life,  and, 
especially,  of  old  age.  (As  we  write,  the  similar 
death  of  Massachusetts'  favourite  son  has  called 
forth  many  utterances  of  a  sentiment  closely 
akin  to  that  feeling  which  is  implied  in  tliis  and 
similar  Greek  stories.) 

It  is  a  curious  example  how  the  accretions  of 

h 


146     The  Successors  of  Homer. 

marvellous  detail  gather  about  a  simpler  core  of 
legend,  that  in  Pausanias'  time  the  local  myth 
at  Delphi  named  the  temple  of  these  brother- 
architects,  not  as  the  first,  but  as  the  fourth 
structure  in  order  of  time.  The  first  rude  con- 
struction had  been  a  hut  of  laurel-boughs ;  the 
second,  yet  more  strangely,  of  bees'  wings  and 
wax ;  the  third  a  temple  of  bronze.  (The  essayist 
may  be  permitted  to  refer  to  his  own  paper  on 
these  and  other  curious  Delphic  legends,  Atlantic 
Monthly,  p.  801,  December,  1889.) 

Next  we  have  a  brief  mention  of  the  fair-flowing 
fountain  at  Delphi,  and  of  the  dragon  that,  after 
slaying  many  men  and  many  cattle,  "  working 
much  mischief  on  earth,"  was  herself  destroyed 
by  Apollo's  bow,  at  the  spring. 

But  from  this  point  fifty  verses  (vers,  305-355) 
are  filled  with  the  widest  digression  of  all.  The 
origin  of  Typhaon — produced  by  Hera,  without 
sire,  in  emulation,  after  Pallas'  birth  from  her 
father's  head — is  rehearsed  with  much  vivid  but 
crude  detail.  The  slight  thread  of  connection 
is  the  assertion,  that  he  was  at  birth  given  in 


The  Homeric  Hymn  to  Apollo.  147 

charge,  "  evil  to  the  evil,"  to  this  same  dragon. 
Again  returning  to  Pytho,  the  poet  gives  nearly 
twenty  wearisome  verses  (vers.  356-376)  to  the 
death-writhings  of  tlie  monster,  and  to  the 
malodorous  derivation  of  the  sanctuary's  early 
name  from  the  root  injtli,  "to  putrefy,"  in 
allusion  to  the  decaying  body  of  the  serpent. 
(The  rival  derivation,  "place  of  inquiry,"  is 
pleasanter,  but  sins  against  quantity.) 

Now  the  beauty  of  Telphousa's  environment 
recurs  to  Apollo's  mind,  and  with  it  comes  the 
angry  but  tardy  conviction,  that  it  was  for  her 
ow^n  renown,  not  his,  she  had  beguiled  him  to  seek 
the  lonely  Parnassian  dell.  So  he  returns  for  a 
moment  to  her,  and  hides  her  source  under  high- 
piled  rocks — which,  I  believe,  still  remain  as  wit- 
nesses to  the  truth  of  the  tale.  He  also  erects 
near  the  stream  an  altar,  whereat  offerings  were 
still  made,  at  least  in  the  singer's  day,  to  the 
Telphusian  Apollo. 

It  next  occurs  to  Apollo's  mind,  that  he  re- 
quires men,  to  celebrate  his  rites,  and  to  be  his 
faithful  servants  in  rocky  Pytho.  While  ponder- 
ing hereon,  he  descries  a  ship  sailing  the  winy 


148     The  Successors  of  Homer. 

deep,  manned  by  Cretans,  from  Cnossos,  the  city 
of  Minos.  Straightway  he  hastens  to  intercept 
them,  and  in  the  guise  of  a  monstrous  dolphin 
leaps  into  their  vessel.  Eemembering  that  the 
original  Greek  form  of  this  fish's  name  is  DdpMs, 
we  shall  already  guess  that  the  poet  is  beginning 
his  last  and  boldest  assay  at  etymologic  mytho- 
logizing.  Driven  by  divine  command  about  the 
whole  Peloponnesos,  the  weary  ship  enters  the 
Corinthian  gulf,  and  at  last,  reaching  the  port 
of  Crisa,  she  grates  upon  the  pebbly  beach. 

"  Then  leaped  forth  from  the  vessel  the  lord,  Far-shooter 

Apollo, 
Like  to  a  star  at  noon.     Unnumbered  the  rays  that  about 

him 
Flitted  and  flashed,  while  high  to  the  heavens  the  splendour 

extended. 
Into  his  shrine  in  the  midst  of  his  precious  tripods  he 

entered  "  (vers.  440— i4  3). 

There  are  many  naive  touches  in  all  such  myths. 
The  tripods  to  which  the  poet  alludes,  to  which  he 
could  indeed  hardly  refrain  from  proudly  alluding, 
were,  of  course,  votive  offerings  from  thankful 
men,  bestowed  since  the  activity  of  the  oracle 
began.     The  fire  now  lighted  in   the  sanctuary 


The  Homeric  Hymn  to  Apollo.   149 

affrights  the  maids  and  dames  of  Crisa,  which  we 
had  supposed  till  now  was  utterly  desolate  and 
uninhabited,  no  less  than  the  Theban  site  men- 
tioned before. 

Once  again  laying  aside  his  divine  glory,  this 
time  for  the  figure  of  a  goodly  mortal  youth, 
Apollo  is  in  time  to  meet  the  bewildered  Cretans 
at  the  beach,  and  addresses  to  them  the  Homeric 
inquiry,  whether  they  sail  the  seas  for  trade  and 
barter,  or  risking  their  lives  in  piracy.  He  calms 
their  fears,  and  bids  them  put  in  to  the  land  as  is 
the  traders'  wont.  Something  of  his  divinity 
lingers  about  him,  for  the  Cretan  captain  doubt- 
ingly  answers — 

**  Stranger, — for   nowise   like  unto  mortal    men    is    your 

semblance, 
Stature  or  shape,  but  rather  to  gods  whose  life  is  eternal, — 
Potent  and  great  one,  hail !     May  the  gods  all  blessings 

accord  you. 
But  do  you  tell  me  truly,  that  so  I  also  may  know  it : 
Who  is  this  folk  ?    What  land  ?    What  men  have  here 

their  abiding  ?  "  (vers.  464-468). 

To  their  frank  confession — 

"  Hither  some  one  of  immortals,  against  our  wishes,  has  led 
us  "  (ver.  473), 


150     The  Successors  of  Homer. 

Apollo    at    last    responds    in    his    own    proper 
character — 

"Strangers,  ye  who  have  dwelt  in  the  woodland  city  of 
Cnossos 
Till  this  time,  ye  now  shall  go  no  longer,  returning, 
Unto  your  lovely  town,  and  the  beautiful  dwelling  of  each 

man, 
Nor  to  your  faithful  wives  !  but  here  my  opulent  temple 
Ye  shall  guard,  that  is  held  by  men  full  many  in  honour. 
I  myself  am  a  son  of  Zeus,  my  name  is  Apollo. 
Over  the  mighty  abyss  of  the  waters  I  guided  you  hither." 

(Vers.  475-481). 

This  tale  of  Cretans  brought  to  Delphi  seems 
to  have  no  traceable  origin,  save  the  mere  fact, 
generally  accepted,  that  Minos'  folk  were  the  first, 
or  among  the  first,  of  Greeks  to  wrest  from  their 
Phoenician  rivals  the  art  of  navigation  and  the 
profits  of  commerce.  At  the  god's  bidding  the 
wanderers  now  bring  their  ship  to  land,  and, 
stepping  ashore,  set  up  on  the  beach  an  altar 
to  Delphinian  Apollo.  Then,  after  supper  and 
sacrifice,  the  final  march  Delphi-ward  begins. 
Phoebos'  figure  reminds  us  of  his  former  appear- 
ance on  Olympos,  as  he  leads  the  way  with  lyre 
in  hand, — 


The  Homeric  Hymn  to  Apollo.   151 

"  Gracefully  stepping  and  high ;  and  dancing  followed  the 
Cretans, 
Singing  a  paean  of  praise  "  (vers.  516,  517). 

Yet,  when  they  arrive  at  the  temple  and  shrine, 
some  doubt  arises  once  again,  and  the  Cretan 
captain  asks — 

"  0  thou,  lord,  who  afar  from  our  friends  and  the  land  of 

our  fathers 
Hither  hast  led  us — for  so,  it  appears,  it  has  suited  thy 

pleasure — 
How  may  we  prosper  now  ?     For  this  we  bid   thee  to 

tell  us. 
This  is  a  land  not  lovely  nor  fruitful,  nor   goodly  its 

meadows  "  (vers.  526-529). 

The  smiling  god  bids  them  put  aside  all  anxious 
cares,  all  thought  of  grievous  toil.  Their  only 
task  shall  be  to  slay  the  kine,  which  countless 
races  of  men  wUl  bring  to  them  for  sacrifice. 

"  Guard  ye  my  temple  well,  and  receive  ye  the  races  of 
mortals 
Hither  assembling  "  (vers.  538,  539). 

We  are  within  eight  lines  of  the  close.  The 
hymn  thus  far  seems  composed  in  exultant 
spirit,  doubtless  for  a  Delphic  brotherhood  which 


152     The  Successors  of  Homer. 

believed  itself  the  invincible  and  inviolate  de- 
scendants from  those  Cretan  guardians,  who  had 
been  thus  divinely  led  to  the  primeval  shrine. 
If  this  is  rightly  guessed,  and  this  great  hymn 
was  indeed  created  for  such  a  body,  then  the 
next  five  lines  may  well  be  a  colophon  added  in 
less  happy  days ;  or,  they  may  even  have  been 
supplied  by  new  lords  of  the  sanctuary,  boldly 
justifying,  out  of  the  divine  mouth  itself,  their 
subjugation  of  the  traditional  guardians.  At  any 
rate  Apollo's  final  speech  now  closes  thus : — 

"  Yet  if  a  foolish  word  shall  occur  hereafter,  or  action, 
Insolence,  such  as   is  common  among  mankind  who  are 

mortal, 
Then  shall  other  men  in  that  day  be  your  commanders, 
At  their  hands  shall  you  be  perforce  subdued,  and  for  ever. 
Verily  all  is  said :  in  your  memory  well  be  it  guarded." 

(Vers.  540-544.) 

We  are  not  likely  ever  to  know  what  historical 
event  was  here  indicated.  In  the  Iliad,  rocky 
Pytho  is  already  proverbial  for  its  wealth,  which 
must  have  been  bestowed  as  gifts  from  grateful 
pilgrims  to  the  seat  of  augury.  A  passage  of 
the  Odyssey  expressly  asserts  that  Agamemnon 


The  Homeric  Hymn  to  Apollo.  153 

sought  there,  beforehand,  information  as  to  the 
issue  of  the  Trojan  war.  The  oracle  he  obtained 
had  all  the  ambiguity  and  vagueness  so  common 
in  later  days.  Whatever  this  strange  far  hint  of 
Amphictyonic  victory,  or  other  Sacred  War,  may 
mean,  all  is,  indeed,  said,  save  the  familiar 
transition  from  prelude  to  epic  lay,  in  a  couplet 
which  has,  perhaps,  been  transferred  by  a  later 
copyist  hither  from  its  place  at  the  close  of  several 
among  the  briefer  hymns — 

"  Greeting,  then,  unto  thee,  0  son  of  Zeus  and  of  Leto, 
I  of  thee  and,  as  well,  of  another  song  will  be  mindful." 


154     The  Successors  of  Homer. 


VI. 

THE  HOMEPJC   HYMN   TO   DEMETEE. 

Perhaps  the  most  pathetic  and  significant  of  all 
Greek  myths  is  the  tale  of  the  daughter  untimely 
snatched  by  Hades  to  his  underworld,  and  of  the 
divine  mother  who  finds  her  chief  consolation  in 
administering  to  humanity's  needs.  As  Walter 
Pater  reminds  us,  this  myth  was  of  very  gradual 
growth.  From  Homer  it  cannot  be  shown  that 
Demeter  and  Persephone  are  even  closely  akin  ! 
Demeter  appears  occasionally,  in  the  epics,  but 
only  as  "  the  perfectly  fresh  and  blithe  goddess 
of  the  fields."  She  even  yields  in  the  ploughed- 
land  on  one  occasion  to  the  embraces  of  a  mortal 
lover,  lasion,  from  whom  jealous  Zeus  exacts  his 
life  as  a  penalty  for  this  presumption.  Perse- 
phone, again,  stern  queen  of  ghosts,  from  whose 


The  Homeric  Hymn  to  Demeter.  155 

realm  the  canny  Odysseus  flees,  lest  she  freeze 
him  to  stone  with  the  Gorgon-heacl, — the  Homeric 
Persephone,  I  say,  gives  no  hint  of  any  memories 
or  longings  for  the  green  fields  of  her  childhood, 
if  childhood  she  ever  had. 

It  is  once  more  in  Hesiod's  Theogony  that  we 
must  seek  the  first  kernel  of  the  purer  and  nobler 
legend,  the  far-spreading  later  growth.  In  three 
verses,  only,  Hesiod  tells  us  : — 

"  Next  was  the  fruitful  Demeter  to  Zeus  in  wedlock  united. 
She  gave  birth  to  Persephone,  white-armed,  whom  Aidoneus 
Snatched  from  her  mother  away :  and  Zeus  the  Adviser 
permitted." 

The  original  suggestion  for  this  myth  can 
hardly  have  failed  to  come  from  the  apparent 
death  of  vegetation  in  Winter,  and  its  happy 
restoration  to  mother  Nature's  loving  arms  for 
the  longer  season  of  Summer.  But  it  is  always 
an  error  to  carry  such  a  key  in  hand  to  explain 
each  detail  of  a  living  legend.  So  Heracles  and 
his  twelve  labours  may  well  have  been,  to  the 
first  story-teller,  consciously  connected  with  the 
sun  and  his  twelve  zodiacal  signs;  but  around 
that  rallying-point  many  a  capital  tale  has  been 


156     The  Successors  of  Homer. 

invented — and  others,  too,  which  properly  be- 
longed to  other  heroes  Hellenic  and  barbarian, 
have  drifted  thither — till  no  allegorical  analysis 
can  spoil  even  a  tithe  of  them  any  more !  Cer- 
tainly into  this  land  of  marvel,  where  the  magic 
narcissus  blooms,  we  may  pass  only  if  we  bring 
with  us  the  unspoiled  faith,  the  unquestioning 
imagination,  of  childhood.  For  our  children  are 
happily  not  yet  born — as  Hesiod  has  forewarned 
us — with  "  gi-ey  hair  upon  the  temples,"  and  they 
still  may  enter  the  Elysian  fields  of  the  Hellenic 
prime.  If  any  reader  doubts  this,  let  him  test 
his  dullest  or  most  practical  boy  by  repeating  to 
him  this  very  tale  of  the  lost  daughter,  from 
Hawthorne's  "  Wonderbook,"  where  Persephone 
herself  is  reduced  (rather  boldly  but  daintily,  and 
with  true  Hawthornesque  genius)  to  the  stature 
and  the  years  of  childhood. 

The  poem  must  have  been  inspired,  probably 
composed,  at  Eleusis  itself.  It  abounds  in  local 
allusions,  and  also  in  references,  no  doubt  many 
more  than  we  can  now  verify,  to  the  noble  cult 
of  the  Mother  and  Daughter.  We  can  enter 
upon   no   discussion    as  to  what   the  Eleusinian 


The  Homeric  Hymn  to  Demeter.  157 

mysteries  really  were.  That  the  belief  in  an 
immortal  life,  and  even  in  some  form  of  resur- 
rection, was  there  illustrated  and  strengthened, 
seems  inevitable  from  the  very  essence  of  the 
Persephone  myth  itself.  The  poet  is,  perhaps, 
as  early  as  the  seventh  century  B.C.  There  is, 
I  believe,  no  distinct  allusion  to  Athenian  rule 
in  Eleusis,  though  in  this  the  Attic  poet — if  such 
he  was — of  course  merely  restores  the  conditions 
of  the  earlier  day  which  he  is  recalling.  The 
absence  of  Dionysos,  and  of  Triptolemos  as  the 
first  teacher  of  agriculture,  may  indicate  that  we 
have  here  the  earliest  and  simplest  form  of  the 
Eleusinian  myth. 

Among  the  rather  numerous  classical  poems 
upon  the  same  theme  yet  extant  (all  of  which 
Mr.  Pater  discusses),  none  approaches,  on  the 
whole,  the  noble  simplicity  of  this  earliest  hymn 
to  Demeter.  Yet  each  adds  touches,  picturesque 
if  not  always  congruous,  like  the  many  hands 
that  piece  on  and  piece  out  an  historic  English 
country-house.  Even  frolicsome  Ovid  feels  for 
once  in  full  the  pathetic  majesty  of  the  theme. 
He,  in  particular,  makes  Eleusinian  Keleos  not 


158     The  Successors  of  Homer. 

a  king  at  all,  but  rather  a  poor  old  man  like  his 
own  Philemon  ;  and  almost  persuades  us  to  accept 
this  bold  variation  upon  the  imperishable  tale. 
Many  modern  versions  or  allusions  to  the  theme 
are  familiar  to  every  lover  of  poetry.  Last  of 
all,  Tennyson,  in  his  old  age,  has  felt  the  charm 
of  the  myth,  though  his  poem  by  no  means  dis- 
places, or  even  rivals,  the  antique  renderings  of 
the  subject. 

All  which  may  justify  the  selection  of  this 
Homeric  hymn  for  a  sustained  experiment  in 
hexameter  translation.  In  order  to  avoid  fre- 
quent interruption  for  comment  and  discussion, 
we  may  refer  once  for  all  to  Mr.  Pater's  careful 
yet  imaginative  account  of  this,  and  of  the  other 
classical  poems  upon  Demeter,  in  his  precious 
"  Greek  Studies."  Professor  Louis  Dyer  gives  a 
more  analytical  treatment — and  also  a  glimpse 
at  the  archaeology  of  Eleusis — in  his  interesting 
and  valuable  book,  "  The  Gods  in  Greece." 

"HYMN  TO   DEMETER. 
"  First  Demeter  I  sing,  that  fair-tressed  reverend  goddess. 
Her,  and  her  daughter   the  slcuder-ankled,  wliom  once 
Aidoneus 


The  Homeric  Hymn  to  Demcter.  159 

Stole — for  wide-eyed  Zeus,  who  is  lord  of  the  thunder, 

permitted. 
Quite  unaware  was  the  mother,  Fruitgiver,  the  Bringer  of 

spring-time. 
She — Persephone — played    with    Okeanos'    deep-bosomed 

daughters, 
Plucking  the  blossoms — the  beautiful  violets,  roses,  and 

crocus. 
Iris,  and  hyacinth,  too,  that  grew  in  the  flowery  meadow," 

The  names  were  probably  applied  by  the  poet 
to  different  plants  than  those  which  they  call  to 
our  minds ;  but  their  poetic  associations  are 
essentially  unchanged. 

"  Earth,  by  command  of  Zeus,  and  to  please  All-welcoming 

Pluto, 
Caused   narcissus   to   grow,  as  a   lure  for  the  lily-faced 

maiden. 
Wonderful   was  it  in   beauty.     Amazement  on   all   who 

beheld  it 
Fell,  both  mortal  men  and  gods  whose  life  is  eternal. 
Out  of  a  single  root  it  had  grown  with  clusters  an  hundred. 
All  wide  Heaven  above  was  filled  with  delight  at  the 

fragrance. 
Earth  was  laughing  as  well,  and  the  briny  swell  of  the 

waters. 
She,  in  her  wonder,  to  pluck   that  beautiful  plaything 

extended 


160     The  Successors  of  Homer. 

Both  lier  hands :  but  that  moment  the  wide-wayed  earth 
underneath  her 

Yawned,  in  the  Nysian  plain  ;  and  the  monarch,  Receiver 
of  all  men, 

Many-named  son  of  Kronos,  arose,  with  his  horses  im- 
mortal,— 

— Seized  her  against  her  will,  and  upon  his  chariot  golden 

Bore  her  lamenting  away; — and  the  hills  re-echoed  her 
outcry. 

Kronos'  son  she  invoked,  most  mighty  and  noble,  her 
father. 

None  among  mortal  men,  nor  the  gods  whose  life  is 
eternal. 

Heard  her  voice — not  even  the  fruitful  Nymphs  of  the 
marsh-land. 

Only  Ferses'  daughter,  the  tender-hearted,  had  heard  her, 

Hecate,  she  of  the  gleaming  coronet,  out  of  her  cavern, — 

Heard  her  on  Kronides  calling,  her  father:  he  from  im- 
mortals 

Far  was  sitting  aloof,  in  a  fane  where  many  petitions 

Came  to  him,  mingled  with  sacrifices  abundant  of  mortals. 

"  So,  at  the  bidding  of  Zeus  was  reluctant  Persephone  stolen. 
Forced  by  her  father's  brother,  the  Many-named,  offspring 

of  Kronos, 
Lord  and  Eeceiver  of  all  mankind — with  his  horses  im- 
mortal. 
While  Persephone  yet  could  look  upon  star-studded  heaven, 
Gaze  on  the  earth  underneath,  and  the  swarming  waters 
unresting, 


The  Homeric  Hymn  to  Dcmetcr.  161 

Seeing  the  light,  so  long  she  had  hope  that  her  glorious 

mother 
Yet  would  descry  her — or  some  from  the  race  of  the  gods 

ever-living. 
So  long  hope  consoled  her  courageous  spirit  in  trouble. 
Loudly  the  crests  of  the  mountains  and  depths  of  the 

■water  resounded 
Unto  her  deathless  voice : — and  her  royal  mother  did  hear 

her. 
Keen  was  the  pain  at  Demeter's  heart,  and  aiiout  her 

ambrosial 
Tresses  her  tender  hands  were  rending  her  beautiful  wimiDle. 
Dusky  the  garment   was  that  she  cast  upon  both  her 

shoulders." 

(Black  robes  were  already  the  sign  of  grief  in 
the  Iliad.  For  example,  they  are  worn  in  II. 
xxiv.  by  Thetis,  of  whom  the  younger  poet  borrows 
many  touches  for  his  Mourning  Mother.  For 
instance,  he  has  just  echoed  the  words  which 
announce  her  first  appearance  in  II.  i.,  arising 
out  of  the  sea  at  Achilles'  call — 

"  And  his  royal  mother  did  hear  him.") 

"Like  to  a  bird  she  darted,  and  over  the   lands  and  the 
waters 
Sped  as  if  frenzied :  but  yet  there  was  no  one  willing  to 
tell  her 

M 


162     The  Successors  of  Homer. 

Truthfully,  neither  of  gods  nor  of  human  folk  who  are 

mortal ; 
None  of  the  birds  would  come  unto  her  as  a  messenger 

faithful." 


Mother  ISTatiire  understands  with  equal  ease  the 
voices  of  all  her  children  ;  though  this  is  a  truth 
which  should  least  of  all  need  repetition,  in  an 
age  made  happy  by  the  immortal  creation  of 
Mowgli  and  his  companions. 

"  So  throughout  nine  days,  over  earth  imperial  Deo, 

Holding  in  both  her  hands  her  flaming  torches,  was 
roaming. 

Never  ambrosia,  nor  ever  delightsome  nectar  she  tasted ; 

Never  she  bathed  with  water  her  body — so  bitter  her 
sorrow. 

Yet  when  upon  her  there  came  for  the  tenth  time  glimmer- 
ing morning, 

Hecate  met  her,  a  shining  light  in  her  hands,  and  addrest 
her, 

Speaking  unto  her  thus,  and  bringing  her  news  of  her 
daughter : 

*  Royal  Demeter,  our  Bountiful  Lady,  the  Giver  of  Spring- 
time, 

Who  among  mortal  men,  or  who  of  the  gods  ever-living. 

Brought  this  grief  to  your  heart  by  stealing  Persephone 
from  you  ? 


The  Homeric  Hymn  to  Demeter.  163 

Truly  her  voice  did  I  iiear,  but  yet  with  my  eyes  I  beheld 
not 

Who  committed  the  deed.  Thus  all  have  I  truthfully 
told  you.' 

So  did  Hecate  speak,  and  in  words  replied  not  the  other, 

Fair-tressed  Eheia's  daughter,  but  hastily  with  her  she 
darted. 

Hurrying  forward,  and  still  in  her  hands  were  the  glim- 
mering torches." 

These  torches  are  "still  in  her  hands,"  also, 
in  many  works  of  plastic  art  which  have  been 
preserved.  The  torch  played  a  prominent  part 
too  in  the  solemn  processions  and  figurative 
ceremonies  of  Eleusis. 

"  So  they  to  Helios  came,  who  is  watcher  of  gods  and  of 

mortals. 
Standing  in  front  of  his  steeds,  she,  divine  among  goddesses, 

asked  him : 
*  Helios,  you  as  a  goddess  should  hold  me  in  honour,  if 

ever 
Either  by  word  or  deed  I  have  cheered  your  heart  and 

your  spirit. 
I  through  boundless  ether  have  heard  the  lament  of  a 

maiden, 
Even  of  her  that  I  bore,  fair  blossom,  of  glorious  beauty : 
Heard  her  cry  of  distress,  though  not  with  my  eyes  I  beheld 


164     The  Successors  of  Homer. 

Yet  do  you,  who  descry  all  earth  and  the  billowy  waters, 
Out  of  the  ether  resplendent  with  keen  glance  watchfully 

downward 
Gazing,  report  to  me  truly,  my  child,  if  perchance  you 

behold  her. 
Tell  me  who  among  men,  or  of  gods,  whose  life  is  unending, 
Seized,  and  away  from  her  mother  has  carried,  the  maiden 
,  unwilling.' 

"  So  did  she  speak ;  and  the  son  of  Hyperion  answered  her, 

saying : 
'  Pair-tressed  Rheia's  daughter,  our  royal  lady  Demeter, 
You  shall  know :    for  indeed  I  pity  and  greatly  revere 

you. 
Seeing  you  grieved  for  your  child,  for  the  graceful  Perse- 
phone.    No  one 
Else   save  cloud-wrapt   Zeus  is  to  blame  among  all  the 

immortals. 
He  as  a  blooming  bride  has  given  your  daughter  to  Hades, 
Brother  to  him  and   to  you :    so  down  to  the  shadowy 

darkness 
Hades,  spite  of  her  cries,  has  dragged  her  away  with  his 

horses. 
Yet,  0  goddess,  abate  your  grief :  it  befits  you  in  no  wise 
Thus  insatiate  anger  to  cherish.     Nor  yet  an  unworthy 
Husband  among  the  immortals  is  Hades,  monarch  of  nil 

men. 
Child  of  the  selfsame  father  and  mother  with  you  :  and 

his  honours 


The  Homeric  Hymn  to  Demeter.  165 

Fell  to  his  share,  when  first  amid  three  was  the  universe 


Still  amid  those  he  reigns,  whose  rule  unto  him  was 
allotted.' " 

A  doctrine  hard  indeed,  yet  true.  Death  is 
verily  the  brother  of  Life,  to  be  welcomed  no 
less  than  the  other  as  a  rightful  guest  among  us. 

"Speaking  thus  he  aroused  his  steeds:  and  they  at  his 
bidding. 

Nimbly  as  long-winged  birds  with  the  rushing  chariot 
hastened. 

Over  Demeter's  heart  grief  fiercer  and  keener  descended. 

Then  in  her  anger  at  Kronos'  son,  who  is  lord  of  the  storm- 
cloud, 

Leaving  the  gathering-place  of  the  gods  and  spacious 
Olympos, 

Unto  the  cities  of  men  and  the  fertile  fields  she  de- 
parted." 

From  this  point  the  tenderest  human  sympathies 
blend  more  and  more  with  the  marvellous  elements 
of  the  divine  myth. 

"  Many  a  day  was  her  form  disguised  :  and  of  those  who 
beheld  her, 
No  one,  whether  of  men  or  of  dames  deep-girded,  could 
know  her. 


166     The  Successors  of  Homer. 

So  had  she  fared,  till  she  came  to  the  prudent  Keleos' 

dwelling  ; 
He  was  the  ruler  then  of  Eleusis  abounding  in  incense." 

The  epithet  given  to   Eleusis  is   partly  antici- 
patory. 

"  Close  to  the  road  she  took  her  seat,  sore  troubled  in  spirit, 
Nigh  to  a  sacred  well,  whence  water  was  drawn  by  the 

townsfolk. 
There  in  the  shadow  she  sat  of  an  olive  thicket  above  her, 
Taking  upon  her  the  form  of  an  aged  woman,  who  travail 
Never  may  know,  nor  the  gifts  of  garlanded  Aphrodite, 
Such  as  the  ancient  dames  and  nurses  who  care  for  the 

children. 
Dwelling  within  the  resounding  halls  of  governing  mon- 

archs. 
There  she  was  seen  by  the  daughters  of  Keleos,  lord  of 

Eleusis. 
They  with  their  pitchers  of  bronze  were  come  to  the 

fountain  for  water. 
Easily  drawn,  to  be  fetched  to  the  pleasant  abode  of  their 

father : 
— Four,  like  goddesses,  having  the  bloom  of  maidenly 

beauty, 
Kleisidike  and  Kallidike  and  beautiful  Demo, 
Kallithoe,    too,    youngest    and    last.     They    knew    not 

Demeter ; 
— Difficult  is  it  in  truth  for  the  gods  to  be  known  by  us, 

mortals, — 


The  Homeric  Hymn  to  Demeter.  167 

Standing  close  at  her  side  with  winged  words  they  addrest 

her  : 
'  Whence  do  you  come,  old  dame,  from  the  folk  of  a  past 

generation  ? 
Why,  thus,  apart  from  the  town  do  you  fare,  and  unto  the 

dwellings 
Come  not  nigh,  where  dames  in  the  shadowy  halls  are 

abiding — 
Some  as  aged  as  you  yourself — and  others  are  younger  ? 
They  with  words,  and  in  deed  no  less,  would  accord  you  a 

welcome.' 
So  did  they  speak,  and   to  them  the  imperial  goddess 

responded : 
*  Children  dear,  whosoever  you  are  among  women,  I  greet 

you. 
Yes,  and  your  question  I'll  answer ;   indeed   it  is  only 

befitting. 
Since  you  have  asked  me  this,  that  I  should  truthfully  tell 

you.' " 

But  the  divine  guest  has  not  sworn  by  the 
Stygian  stream,  and  the  mystic  name  she  gives 
herself  is  perhaps  the  only  word  not  untruthful 
in  her  reply. 

" '  Deo    my    name    is :    upon    me    my   reverend    mother 
bestowed  it. 
Over   the    sea's  broad  back  from   Crete  I  hither  have 
wandered ; 


168     The  Successors  of  Homer. 

Not  of  my  own  free  will,  but  "by  need  and  compulsion, 
unwilling 

Hither  by  pirates  brought :  and  they  at  Thorikos  lately 

Ean  their  vessel  ashore.     Then  many  a  captive  woman, 

Many  a  pirate  too,  was  fain  to  set  foot  on  the  mainland. 

There  by  the  stern  of  the  ship  their  evening  meal  they 
provided. 

Yet  the  delightful  supper  was  nowise  dear  to  my  spirit. 

Hastening  forth  unseen,  I  traversed  the  shadowy  main- 
land, 

Fleeing  my  insolent  lords,  that  they,  who  never  had 
bought  me. 

Might  not  sell  me  and  win  for  themselves  my  value  here- 
after. 

So  in  my  wanderings  hither  to  you  am  I  come ;  and  I 
know  not 

What  is  the  land,  nor  who  are  the  people  within  it 
abiding. 

Yet  unto  you  may  all  who  make  their  abode  in  Olympos 

Grant  you  husbands,  in  wedlock,  and  make  you  the  mothers 
of  children 

Such  as  parents  crave ;  but  do  you  show  pity  upon  me. 

Gentle  maidens,  in  kindness,  until  I  may  come  to  the 
dwelling 

Either  of  lady  or  lord,  for  whom  I  may  eagerly  labour. 

Doing  the  tasks  that  fall  to  a  woman  as  aged  as  I  am.' 

Either  a  new-born  child  I  could  hold  in  ray  arms,  and 
could  nurse  him 

Wisely  and  well,  or  else  could  keep  in  order  the  house- 
hold : 


The  Homeric  Hymn  to  Demeter.  169 

Yes,  and  the  bed  could  I  lay  for  the  lords,  in  the  well-built 

chambers, 
Inner  recesses — or  teach  their  handicraft  to  the  womeq.' 


"  Thus  did  the  goddess  speak.    Straight  answered  the  maiden 

unwedded, 
Kallidike,  who  was  fairest  of  face  among  Keleos'  daughters : 
*  Mother,  the  gifts  of  the  gods,  though  bitter  our  sorrow,  we 

mortals 
Must  perforce  endure,  since  they  are  by  far  more  mighty.'  " 

Here,  as  often,  we  catch  an   echo  of  Nausicaa's 
accents. 

" '  This,  however,  to  you  will  I  clearly  explain,  and  will  tell 
you 
As  to  the  men  who  here  have  a  larger  measiire  of  honour  : 
Chiefs  of  our  people  are  they,  and  the  towering  walls  of 

the  city 
They  with  their  counsels  hold  secure,  and  righteous  deci- 
sions. 
First  Triptolemos  wise  in  counsel,  and  also  Dioclos, 
Polyxeinos  next  I  name,  and  noble  Eumolpos, 
Dolichos,  too,  and  lastly  our  own  illustrious  father. 
— All  have  wedded  wives,  who  keep  in  order  their  house- 
holds. 
No  one  of  all  these  dames — not  even  when  first  she  shall 
see  you, 


170     The  Successors  of  Homer. 

Holding  you  in  disdain  would  debar  you  out  of  her  dwelling. 
Nay,  they  will  welcome  you : — since  you  are  verily  like  the 
immortals.' " 


The  gods,  in  early  poetry,  seem  constantly  in 
danger  of  betraying  their  superhuman  beauty  or 
power.  The  mask  of  humility,  or  age,  or  wretched- 
ness, is  always  slipping  aside. 

" '  But  if  you  will,  here  tarry  until  to  the  house  of  my  father 
"We  may  come,  and  tell  deep-girt  Metaneira,  my  mother, 
All  that  to  us  has  befallen.     It  may  be  then  she  will  bid 

you 
Into  our  home  to  come,  nor   seek   for  the  dwelling  of 

others. 
There  in  her  well-built  palace  a  son,  most  dearly-beloved, 
Late -born,    prayed -for    long,  and    eagerly    welcome,  is 

nourished. 
If  you  would  care  for  him  till  he  comes  to  the  threshold 

of  manhood. 
Verily  every  one  of  women  who  then  may  behold  you 
Not  without  envy  may  see  the  rewards  you  may  win  for 

his  rearing.' 

"  Such  were  her  words.     With  a  nod  did  the  goddess  assent, 
and  the  maidens 
Filled   their  shining   urns  with   water,  and  bore   them, 
exultant. 


The  Homeric  Hymn  to  Demeter.  171 

Nimbly  they  came  to  their  father's  strong-built  mansion, 

and  quickly 
Told  their  mother  of  all  they  had  seen  and  heard :  and  the 

mother 
Straightway  bade  them  invite  her  to  come,  at  wages  un- 
bounded. 
Then  did  the  maidens — as  deer,  or  as  calves  in  the  season 

of  springtime 
Gambol  the  meadows  along,  when  delighted  at  heart  with 

the  pasture, 
— So  they  darted,  uplifting  the  folds  of  their  beautiful 

garments, 
Down  by  the  hollowed  way  for  the  wagons :  their  tresses 

about  them. 
Like   to   the   crocus   blossom,   were  floating  over    their 

shoulders. 
There,  at  the  side  of  the  way,  they  found  the  illustrious 


Where  they  had  left  her  before.  Then  toward  the  house 
of  their  father 

They  led  onward;  and  she — distressed  in  spirit — behind 
them 

Followed  along,  with  her  face  close  veiled ;  and  her  gar- 
ments about  her 

Duskily  fell  in  waves  to  the  glistening  feet  of  the  goddess. 

Soon  to  the  palace  of  Zeus-supported  Keleos  came  they. 

Then  through  a  porch  they  went  their  way,  for  the  reverend 
mother 

There,  in  the  well-built  hall,  by  a  pillar  was  sitting,  and 
holding 


172     The  Successors  of  Homer. 

On  her  lap  her  boy,  that  blossom  so  tender.     The  maidens 
Ean  to  her  side :  but  the  goddess  immovable  stood  at  the 

threshold. 
Nigh  to  the  lintel  she  towered,  and  with  radiance  filled  was 

the  portal. 
Shame  and  awe  fell,  then,  and  terror,  upon  Metaneira. 
Out  of  her  chair  she  arose,  and  bade  the  new-comer  be 

seated. 
Yet  Demeter,   the  Bringer  of  Spring,   the   Bestower  of 

bounty. 
Was  not  willing  to  take  her  place  in  the  glistening  arm- 
chair, 
But  with  her  beautiful  eyes  cast  down,  and  silent,  she 

lingered : 
Lingered  at    least,   so  long,  till  cunning  lambe  before 

her 
Set  her  a  firm-wrought  chair — and  a  white  fleece  laid  she 

upon  it. 
Then  Demeter  was  seated,  and  drew  her  veil  with  her 

fingers. 
Speechless  upon  her  chair  full    long  she  sate,  and   in 

sorrow. 
Greeting  to  no  one  there  she  accorded,  by  word  or  by 

gesture : 
But,  unsmiling,  refusing  to  taste  of  food  or  of  hquid. 
Sate  she,  wasted  away  by  desire  for  her  daughter  deep- 
girded  ; 
— Till  at  the  last,  with  her  jests  fidl  many,  the  cunning 

lambe, 
Scoffing,  diverted  the  holy  Demeter,  the  reverend  goddess. 


The  Homeric  Hymn  to  Demeter.  173 

So  that  she  smiled,  then  laughed,  and  took  on  a  cheerier 

spirit. 
(She,  too,  often  thereafter  delighted  her  heart  when  in 

anger.)  " 

"  The  allegory,"  as  Dante  would  say,  "  grows 
thin  at  this  point."  lambe  is  scoffing  Jest 
personified,  and  she  had  indeed  a  traditional 
prominence  amid  the  statelier  features  of  the 
mysteries. 

"  Then  Metaneira  proffered  her  honey-sweet  wine,  in  a 
goblet. 

Filling  it :  yet  she  her  head  tossed  back  in  refusal,  declaring 

This  was  forbidden  for  her,  to  quaff  of  the  wine :  but  she 
bade  her 

Barley  and  water  to  give  her,  commingled  with  soft  penny- 
royal. 

She  made  ready  and  offered  the  goddess  the  draught  she 
had  ordered. 

— Still  is  the  gift  she  accepted  the  portion  of  reverend 
Deo." 

And  the  Chthonian  gods  generally  are  austere 
gods,  to  whom  no  libations  of  wine  are  welcome. 
Oedipus'  greeting  to  the  "wineless  goddesses" 
at  Colonos  is  as  familiar  a  passage  as  any. 


174     The  Successors  of  Homer. 

"Straightway    among    them    began    and    spoke    fair-girt 

Metaneira : 

'  Welcome,  oh  woman !  assuredly  not  from  parents  unworthy 

You  are  sprung,  but  a  noble  race :  in  your  eyes  so  clearly 

Grace  and  modesty  shine,  as  in  those  of  imperial  princes.' " 

Is  it  the  tradition  of  the  Homeric  school  that 
makes  this  Attic  and,  perhaps,  democratic  poet, 
such  a  firm  believer  in  the  nobility  of  royal  races  ? 

"  *  Still,  what  the  gods  ordain,  though  bitter  our  sorrow,  we 

mortals 
Must  perforce  endure :  to  our  necks  their  yoke  has  been 

fitted. 
Now  that  to  us  you  are  come,  let  your  share  be  as  mine  is 

in  all  things. 
Eear  for  me  this  boy,  who,  late  in  life  and  unhoped-for, 
Was  of  the  gods  bestowed,  as  an  answer  to  many  petitions. 
If  you  would  care  for  him,  till  he  come  to  the  threshold  of 

manhood. 
Verily  every  one  of  women,  who  then  may  behold  you, 
Would  with  envy  see  the  rewards  you  may  win  for  his 

rearing.' 
Then  unto  her,  in  turn,  fair-crowned  Demeter  responded : 
'  Greeting  to  you,  too,  lady ;  the  gods  all  blessings  accord 

you! 
Gladly  will  I  accept  your  child,  as  you  have  commanded, 
Yes,  I  will  rear  him :  nor  shall  he,  methiuks,  through  his 

nurse's  unwisdom 


The  Homeric  Hymn  to  Demeter.  175 

Either  by  accident  come  unto  harm,  or  by  venomous  poison.' 
So  as  she  spoke,  in  her  arms  immortal  she  took  him,  and 

clasped  him 
Unto  her  fragrant  bosom :  the  mother  was  gladdened  in 

spirit. 

'  So  Demophoon,  glorious  son  of  the  valorous  Keleos, 
Whom  Metaneira  had  borne,  by  Demeter  was  reared  in 

the  palace. 
Like  to  a  god  he  throve,  for  he  drew  not  milk  from  his 

mother. 
Neither  of  bread  did  he  eat,  but  with  ambrosia  Demeter 
Ever    anointed    the    child,    like    one    that    a    god    had 

begotten, 
Breathing  sweetly  upon  him,  and  holding  him  close  to  her 


Every  night  in   the  fire  like  a  brand  she  covered  him 

over. 
This  his  affectionate  parents  knew  not :  and  greatly  they 

marvelled. 
Since  so  stately  he  grew,  and  like  to  the  gods  was  his 

semblance. 
She  would  have  made  him  immortal  as  well,  and  ageless 

for  ever : 
But    by    her    folly    the    mother,    fair-robed    Metaneira, 

prevented, 
Watching  by  night,  and  peering  forth  from  her  odorous 

chamber. 
Then  upon  both   her  thighs  she  smote,  and  shrieked  in 

her  terror. 


176     The  Successors  of  Homer. 

— Such  was  her  fear  for  her  son, — and  was  utterly  frenzied 

in  spirit. 
Then  she  lamented  aloud,  and  in  winged  words  she  addrest 

him: 
'  Child  of  mine,  Demoj)ho6n,  surely  the  stranger  has  hid 

thee 
Deep  in  the  fire,  and  bitterest  trouble  and  grief  she  has 

caused  me.' 
So  in  her  sorrow  aloud  she  spoke, — and  the  goddess  had 

heard  her. 
Then  in  her  wrath  at  the  mother,  the  fair-crowned  goddess 

Demeter 
Threw  to  the  earth  from  her  arms  immortal  that  infant 

beloved, 
Plucking  him  forth  from  the  fire,  in  spirit  exceedingly 

wrathful." 

We,  however,  can  hardly  blame  the  mother's 
fears.  Though  the  long  hymn  is  little  more 
than  half  rendered,  this  is  perhaps  as  good  a 
point  as  any  to  break  off:  the  more  as  in  the 
latter  portion  the  text  is  in  bad  condition,  while 
the  story  follows  a  more  conventional  form  of 
the  familiar  myth.  At  least,  there  is  less  of  the 
peculiarly  tender  human  sympathy  so  noticeable 
in  the  earlier  portions.  Demeter,  departing  from 
the  palace  in  all  her  divine  majesty,  bids  the 


The  Homeric  Hymn  to  Demeter.  177 

Eleusiniaus  erect  a  temple  in  her  honour.  Within 
it  she  takes  up  her  abode,  refusing  her  presence 
and  blessin"  to  sods  or  men. 


"  Many  the  ploughs  that  in  vain  by  the  oxen  were  drawn  in 
the  corn-land, 
Vainly  into  the  earth  white  barley  was  cast  in  abundance." 

After  all  the  gods  had  come  to  plead  with  her, 
to  no  purpose,  Zeus  is  forced  to  send  and  bid 
Pluto  release  Persephone.  Here  we  have — for 
the  first  time — the  familiar  incident  of  the  pome- 
granate seed  slily  divided  by  Pluto  with  the  un- 
willing guest.  It  seems  like  an  allusion  to  some 
usage  by  which  the  voluntary  sharing  of  food  by 
the  bride  under  her  lord's  roof  is  to  be  considered 
as  an  essential  consummation  of  wedlock.  Per- 
sephone must,  therefore,  spend  one  part  of  the 
year  with  her  husband  in  the  nether  gloom,  but 
may  tarry  two  parts  above  in  the  sunshine. 
These  are,  of  course,  the  three  seasons  of  the 
year,  as  the  Greeks  distinguish  them. 

The  "  orgies,"  or  mysteries,  (naturally  in  the 
form  ever  after  observed  at  Eleusis,)  are  now 
revealed  by  Demeter  to  the  chief  rulers  of  the 


178     The  Successors  of  Homer. 

land, — among  whom  Triptolemos  is  barely  men- 
tioned. The  nature  of  the  ceremonial  is  not 
indicated,  indeed  the  divine  injunction  of  ab- 
solute secrecy  is  emphatically  repeated.  That 
the  ceremonies  were  peculiarly  efficacious,  if  not 
essential  to  salvation,  may  be  gathered  from 
these  earnest  words : — 

"Blessed  is  he,  whosoever  of  men  ou  earth  may  behold 
them. 
He  who  hath  entered  not,  nor  shared  in  the  ritual,  nowise 
Equally  happy  his  doom,   when   dead,   in    the  terrible 
darkness  "  (vers.  481-483). 

At  once  thereafter  Demeter  and  her  daughter 
take  their  due  places  in  the  great  Olympian 
council. 

"  There  they  abide  at  the  side  of  Zeus,  who  delighteth  in 

thunder ; 
Holy  are  they,  and  dread.     Most  happy  is  he  whosoever 
Dear  to  their  hearts  may  become,  among  men  who  on 

earth  have  abiding. 
Quickly  they  send  him, — to  dwell  in  his  stately  home  at 

his  hearthside, — 
Plutus,  who  is  the  giver  of  wealth  unto  men  that  are 

mortal"  (vers.  486-490). 


The  Homeric  Hymn  to  Dcmeter.  179 

The  long  hymn  ends — as  does  the  first  Olym- 
pian ode  of  Pindar — with  a  note  of  modest  con- 
sciousness that  the  singer  deserves  his  reward. 

"  Come,  oh  thou  who  protectest  the  folk  of  fragrant  Eleusis, 
— Rock-bound  Antron,  too,  and  Paros  girt  by  the  waters, — 
Thou  and  thy  daughter  as  well,  most  beautiful   Perse- 

phoneia, 
Kindly  accord,  in  return  for  my  singing,  a  life  of  con- 
tentment. 
— Yet  I  of  you  not  alone,  but  of  other  song  will   be 
mindful"  (vers.  491-496). 

Thus  the  poem  closes,  like  so  many  of  these 
Hymns  or  Preludes,  with  a  transitional  note. 
In  this  case,  however,  we  can  hardly  accept  the 
suggestion,  and  may  be  tempted  to  cancel  the 
last  verse.  Surely  this  poem  of  five  hundred 
hexameter  lines  is  too  stately,  and  too  absorbing 
in  interest,  to  have  been  merely  a  prelude  to 
the  epic  recital  that  should  follow. 


180     The  Successors  of  Homer. 


VII. 

HEXAMETER  IN  THE   HANDS   OF  THE   PHILOSOPHEES. 
(Xenophanes,  Pakmenides,  Empedocles.) 

Among  the  early  Greek  pliilosophers  there  were 
at  least  three,  each  of  whom  in  succession  used 
the  hexameter  verse,  and  epic  dialect,  for  his 
poem  on  the  origin  and  nature  of  things.  At 
any  rate,  all  three  poems  bore  among  later  Greeks 
the  title,  Utpl  ^vatojg,  of  which  Lucretius'  cap- 
tion, "De  Eerum  Natura,"  may  be  considered 
a  translation.  The  earliest  of  the  trio,  Xeno- 
phanes, was  a  native  of  Colophon  in  Asia  Minor, 
one  of  Homer's  earlier  birthplaces.  Moreover, 
Xenophanes  is  said  to  have  celebrated  the 
founding  of  his  native  city,  as  well  as  the  com- 
paratively recent  colonization  of  Elea  in  Italy, 
in  brief  epic  poems.  While  Xenophanes  thus 
shows  himself  a  true  Homerid,  he  will  require 


Hexameter  and  the  Philosophers.  181 

mention  elsewhere  also  as  an  elegiac  poet  of 
moderate  powers.  His  hexameter  verses  still 
surviving  make  but  a  handful  of  fragments, 
the  most  famous  of  which  is  by  no  means  in  a 
subservient  tone  toward  the  great  heads  of  the 
school : — 

"  Everything  is  ascribed  to  the  gods  by  Hesiod  and  Homer, 
Whatsoever  among  mankind  is  shameful  and  wicked. 
Numberless  lawless  deeds  of  the  gods  by  them  are  recorded, 
Thievishness,  unchastity,  ay,  and  deceit  of  each  other ! " 

To  the  whole  anthropomorphic  conception  of 
the  divine  nature  this  philosopher  offers  fearless 
and  scornful  opposition : — 

"  Still  men  hold  the  belief  that  the  gods  were   born  and 

begotten, 
Wear  such  garb  as  themselves,  and  have  like  bodies,  and 

voices,  .  .  . 
Yet  it  is  certain,  if  hands  were  bestowed  upon  oxen  or 

lions, 
If  with  their  hands   they  could  draw,  and  the  works  of 

men  should  acconjplish, — 
Horses  like  unto  horses,  and  oxen  in  likeness  of  oxen, 
So  would  they  draw  their  figures  of  gods,  and  fashion  the 

bodies 
Like  in  every  way  to  their  own  !  " 


182     The  Successors  of  Homer. 

Passages  are  often  quoted,  however,  from 
Xenophanes,  as  if  tliey  proved  a  pure  monothe- 
istic philosophy,  which  hardly  require  that  inter- 
pretation. Thus,  even  the  devout  Aeschylos 
might  apply  to  his  own  Zeus,  without  misgiving, 
such  words  as — 

"There  is  a  single  god,  amid  gods  most  mighty,  and  mortals, 
Nowise  like  unto  men  in  outward  form,  nor  in  spirit." 

Even  his  own  assertions,  upon  superhuman 
themes,  the  sage  would  bid  us  receive  with  a 
grain  of  agnosticism  : — 

"  Truth  itself  no  man  hath  attained,  nor  shall  he  attain  it. 
Neither  as  to  the  gods,  nor  all  whereof  I  am  speaking. 
Yea,  though  what  he  shall  utter  may  seem  most  perfect 

and  finished, 
Yet  he   himself  knows  not:   for  opinion  is  ruler  in  all 

things." 

Still,  to  the  patient  waiting  student  of  to-day, 
there  comes  a  cheery  word  from  this  far  pioneer 
of  thought — 

"Nowise  all  was  revealed  by  the  gods  at  the  first  unto 
mortals, 
But  in  the  course  of  time,  by  seeking,  they  better  discover." 

We  have  still  a  few  reminders,  also,  from  him. 


Hexameter  and  the  Philosophers.  183 

that  the  stately  epic  verse  could  bend  to  more 
familiar  tones : — 

"  Thus  it  is  fitting  to  speak,  in  the  winter  time,  by  the 

fireside, 
When  we  have  eaten  our  fill,  on  a  soft  divan  are  reclining, 
Quaffing  the  mellow  wine,  and  meantime  munching  the 

sweetmeats : 
'  Who  among  men  art  thou,  and  thy  years  how  many, 

good  fellow?'" 

There  could  hardly  be  a  clearer  glimpse  of  the 
unhesitating  hospitality — spiced  with  a  lively 
curiosity — which,  as  the  old  Assians  will  all 
testify,  is  not  yet  a  lost  virtue  among  Asiatic 
Greeks.  Most  of  the  more  familiar  tones  of 
Xenophanes  must  be  reserved  for  the  later  volume 
in  which  we  shall  hope  to  treat  the  elegiac  move- 
ment with  the  rest  of  the  Greek  lyric.  We  must 
attempt,  however,  even  here,  to  echo  that  elusive 
rhythm  for  a  single  quatrain,  if  only  to  let  the 
hale  old  poet  and  wandering  scholar  answer  the 
question  which  his  host  just  put  him  : — 

" '  Seven  and  sixty  years  already  I  widely  have  wandered. 
Through  the  Hellenic  land   strewing  the  seed  of  my 
thought. 


184     The  Successors  of  Homer. 

Twenty  the  years  of  my  life  ere  that,  and  five  in  addition, 
If  I  am  able  to  speak  truthfully  as  to  my  age.'  " 

Lucian  practically  vouches  for  the  veracity  of 
this  tale  of  years,  including  Xenophanes  among 
his  "  Macrobioi,"  or  long-lived  folk,  with  a  crown 
of  one  and  ninety  winters.  His  death  was  pro- 
bably late  in  the  sixth  century  B.C.;  but  for  a 
biography  of  him  little  or  no  data  remain. 

Since  Xenophanes  is  called  the  founder  of  the 
Eleatic  school  of  philosophy,  he  doubtless  spent 
many  years,  either  as  a  colonist  and  citizen,  or  at 
least  as  an  honoured  guest,  in  the  Italian  city. 
Here,  in  Elea,  also,  Parmenides  was  born,  about 
500  B.C.  The  Platonic  Socrates  speaks  with  awe 
of  his  venerable  figure,  as  a  far  memory  from  his 
own  Athenian  boyhood.  Like  his  predecessor, 
Parmenides  was  chiefly  interested  in  seeking  the 
sources  and  limitations  of  scientific  knowledge. 
His  great  poem,  or  treatise  in  verse,  was  a  frigid 
allegory,  wherein  Sophia  (Wisdom),  entertaining 
the  philosopher  in  her  rather  gloomy  stronghold, 
delivered  an  interminable  lecture  under  two  chief 
heads :  viz.  Truth ;  and  the  false  opinions  of  her 
among  men,  based  on  the  deceptive  order  of  her 


Hexameter  and  the  Philosophers.  185 

own  words.  We  shall  be  quite  content  to  tran- 
scribe merely  the  exordium  from  this  Johnsonian 
flight  of  the  Muse !  Even  the  famous  introduc- 
tion is  too  confused,  and  too  heavy,  to  be  fully 
and  faithfully  rendered.  It  seems  probable  that 
the  transcribers  are  to  blame,  in  part,  for  the 
confased  clauses  and  the  wearisome  repetitions. 
But  Parmenides  himself  sags  heavily  in  poetic 
flight.  E.g.  the  verb  "bear"  ((()ipw)  occurs  in 
the  first  and  fourth  verses,  and  in  the  fifth  line 
twice ! 

"Steeds  that   bore  me  along,  so  far  as  my  spirit  might 

venture, 
Since  they  had  carried  me  into  the  far-famed  path  of  the 

goddess, 
Even  of  her  who  in   all   things  guideth  the  wise  unto 

knowledge.  .  .  . 
There  I  arrived,  since  thither  the  horses  of  thought  had 

conveyed  me. 
Whirling  the  chariot  on  :  and  maidens  guided  my  journey 
Unto  the  light,  unwinding  the  veils  that  had  covered  their 

foreheads  : 
Maidens,  Helios'  daughters,  who  came  from  the  dwelling 

of  darkness. 
There  are  the  gates  whence  issue  the  paths  of  Night  and 

of  Daylight. 


186     The  Successors  of  Homer. 

Stone  their  thresliold,  and  stone  is  a  lintel  also  above  them. 
Yet  is  the  gateway  lofty,  and  fitted  with  ponderous  portals. 
Justice,  a  mighty  avenger,  possesses  the  keys  that  unloose 

them. 
Then  did    the  maidens  beseeching    with    gentle  voices 

persuade  her 
Skilfully,  begging  that  she  would  draw  back  the  bolt  of 

the  portal.  .  .  . 
Heartily  there  did  the  goddess  receive  me.     She  with  her 

right  hand 
Clasped  mine  own,  as  she  spoke  these  words :  and  thus 

she  addrest  me : 
'  Youth,  who  with  charioteers  immortal  art  come  a  com- 
panion, 
Thou  who,  by  horses  drawn,  art  arrived  at  my  habitation, 
Welcome !  and  nowise  evil  the  destiny  hither  that  brings 

thee. 
Verily  far  from  the  tracks  of  men  is  the  'path  thou  hast 

followed.' " 

Any  eager  interest  we  would  fain  feel  in 
Sophia's  lecture  is  heavily  drugged  by  her  own 
prompt  avowal,  that  it  matters  not  at  what  point 
she  may  begin,  since  she  must  return  perpetually 
to  the  one  essential  thought.  This  her  favourite 
goal  is,  moreover,  the  most  unpoetic,  if  philo- 
sophic, truth,  that  Existence  and  Non-existence 
are  absolutely  diverse ! 


Hexameter  and  the  Philosophers.  187 

We  may  well  imagine  that  the  sway  of  hexa- 
meter was  tyrannous,  when  such  a  man  moulded 
such  material  into  dactylic  verse.  In  truth,  he 
undoubtedly  did  so  simply  because  he  neither 
found  prepared  for  him,  nor  was  able  to  de\'ise, 
any  easier  form  in  which  to  give  his  thought  a 
permanent  expression.  Any  other  regular  rhythm 
would  have  been  yet  more  unfamiliar  and  re- 
calcitrant :  artistic  prose  was  not  yet  developed. 

Still,  even  Parmenides  is  a  Greek,  and  co-heir 
of  his  Hellenic  artistic  inheritance.  So  even 
from  his  lips  the  rhythm  is  heard,  unmistakably, 
though  in  monotonous  and  breathless  fashion. 
The  thought,  too,  or  rather  the  phrase,  already 
shaped  to  his  hand  by  centuries  of  artists,  insists 
upon  being  poetical  at  times,  in  spite  of  him. 
It  is  through  a  single  verse,  however,  and  that, 
too,  sober  enough  in  its  intention,  that  Par- 
menides lives  for  poets  and  lovers  of  sentiment : — 

"  Eros  before  all  other  divinities  first  she  created." 

The  subject  of  the  verb  was,  as  Plato  indicates, 
Genesis  (Creative  power),  or,  according  to  an- 
other authority,  Aphrodite — which  in  Parmenides' 


188      The  Successors  of  Homer. 

transparent  allegory  would  probably  mean  much 
the  same.  It  will  be  at  once  remembered  that 
the  atheistic  Lucretius  actually  begins  his  rigidly 
materialistic  account  of  creation  with  a  splendid 
invocation  of  Venus.  No  doubt  she,  also,  was 
but  the  poetic  personification  of  creative  force, 
yet  Lucretius'  irrepressible  imagination,  spurred 
apparently  by  national  pride  as  well,  makes  the 
mother  of  Aeneas  very  real  for  us,  if  not  for  him. 

To  Parmenides'  barren  Eleatic  philosophy  we 
need  not  return,  since  it  is  only  as  a  far  and 
rather  feeble  disciple  of  the  Homeric  school  in 
verse  that  he  appears  here  at  all. 

Moreover,  the  last  of  our  philosophic  trio  is  a 
figure  infinitely  more  brilliant  and  imposing. 
Indeed,  among  all  the  thronging  figures  of  the 
past  there  are  few  characters  more  picturesque, 
few  whom  we  would  more  gladly  summon  forth 
from  the  shades  to  respond  to  our  eager  question- 
ing— than  Empedocles  of  Acragas :  "  Empedocles 
of  Aetna  " ! 

Lucretius,  chief  of  surviving  didactic  and  philo- 
sophic poets,  takes  occasion  to  refer  to  Empedocles 
(De   Eerum    Natura,   i.  717  ff.)   in    noble    and 


Hexameter  and  the  Philosophers.  189 

famous  lines.  Among  all  the  wonders  Sicily  has 
produced,  he  says,  "  naught  is  more  illustrious  or 
holy,  nothing  more  wondrous  and  precious,  than 
this  man.  His  poems  moreover,"  Lucretius 
declares,  "utter  and  expound  his  glorious  dis- 
coveries, so  that  he  seems  hardly  sprung  of 
human  stock."  This  characterization  is  evidently 
just.  Empedocles  the  philosopher  scarcely  con- 
cerns us  here,  though  by  his  discovery,  if  such 
we  may  call  it,  of  the  four  elements,  he  became 
the  father  of  all  later  ancient  and  even  mediaeval 
science.  But  he  was,  above  all  else,  as  Lucretius 
indicates,  a  true  poet.  The  four  hundred  and 
eighty  hexameters  which  have  been  preserved 
suffice  to  reveal  his  high  creative  imagination, 
as  well  as  the  splendid  march  of  his  verse. 
Indeed  his  poem,  if  extant  entire,  would  perhaps 
overshadow  Lucretius'  great  work. 

Empedocles'  life  was  cast  in  the  fifth  century 
B.C. — the  golden  age  of  historical  Greece, — and 
chiefly  in  the  Sicilian  city  of  Acragas  or,  as  the 
Eomans  called  it,  Agrigentum.  He  evidently 
enjoyed  hereditary  wealth,  as  the  grandfather 
whose  name  he  bore  won  the  four-horse  chariot 


190      The  Successors  of  Homer. 

race  at  Olympia,  probably  about  the  time  of  the 
poet's  birth,  in  the  first  decade  of  the  fifth 
century.  Twenty  years  later,  Empedocles'  father, 
Meton,  was  a  leader  in  expelling  the  Agrigentine 
tyrant  Thrasidaeus,  Still  later,  after  Meton's 
death,  we  are  told,  the  royal  power  was  offered 
to  the  poet,  and  by  him  refused.  Subsequently 
he  became  unpopular,  went  into  exile,  and  pro- 
bably died,  like  Dante,  without  ever  seeing  again 
the  city  of  his  birth. 

Even  so  much  as  this  we  must  piece  together 
from  late  and  often  discordant  statements.  The 
grave  and  haughty  spirit  clearly  revealed  in  his 
poems  would  naturally  bring  him  into  conflict 
with  the  ignobler  ideas  of  the  folk :  but  no  con- 
nected thread  of  biography  can  now  be  traced. 
The  most  famous  incident  of  all  is  the  familiar 
one  of  his  death :  that  he  secretly  leaped  into 
the  crater  of  Aetna,  in  order  that  his  disciples 
might  believe  he  had  been  miraculously  translated 
from  earth.  The  legend  adds,  that  the  volcano 
mocked  him  by  throwing  out  one  of  his  sandals, 
thus  exposing  the  trick.  Tliis  irony  of  Fate 
doubtless    betrays    the   romantic  origin  of    the 


Hexameter  and  the  Philosophers.  191 

legend  itself,  which  Matthew  Arnold  has  hardly 
succeeded  in  vivifying. 

Empedocles  was  without  doubt  a  leader  of 
mystics,  but  it  seems  equally  true — as  true  as 
of  Plato,  of  Swedenborg,  or  of  Emerson — that  he 
was  his  own  first  and  sincerest  believer.  In 
particular,  the  lines  in  which  he  declares  his 
recollections  of  immortality,  and  of  a  more  blest 
divine  existence,  are  as  earnest  as  anything  in 
Plato  or  in  Wordsworth. 

"  There  is  a  doom  of  fate,  an  ancient  decree  of  immortals,    ^ 
Never  to  be  unmade,  by  amplest  pledges  attested : 
That,  if  a  spirit  divine,  who  shares  in  the  life  everlasting, 
Through  transgression  defiles  his  glorious  body  by  blood- 
shed, 
Or  if  he  perjure  himself  by  swearing  unto  a  falsehood. 
Thrice  ten  thousand  seasons  he  wanders  apart  from  the 


Passing  from  birth  unto  birth  through  every  species  of 

mortal ; 
Changing  ever  the  paths  of  life,  yet  ever  unresting : 
Even  as  I  now  roam,  from  gods  far-wandered,  an  exile. 
Yielding  to  maddening  strife." 

These,   as    Plutarch   and  others   testify,  are   the 
opening   lines    in    the   Prelude   of    Empedocles' 


192      The  Successors  of  Homer. 

great  poem  on  Nature.  Other  and  briefer  frag- 
ments continue  the  same  train  of  thought. 

"  Once  already  have  I  as  a  youtli  been  born,  as  a  maiden, 

Bush,  and  winged  bird,  and  silent  fish  in  the  waters.  .  .  . 

After   what  honours,  and  after  how  long  and  blissful 
existence, 

Thus  am  I  wretchedly  doomed  to  abide  in  the  meadows  of 
mortals ! 

Loudly  I  wept  and  wailed   at   beholding  the  place  un- 
familiar ... 

.  .  .  Joyless  the  place,  where 

Murder  abides  and  Strife,  with  the  other  races  of  Troubles." 

Indeed  the  belief  in  transmigration,  which  we 
are  wont  to  associate  especially  with  the  Pytha- 
gorean teachings,  is  nowhere  more  earnestly  and 
vividly  expressed  than  by  Empedocles.  The 
conviction  that  man's  soul  is  a  fallen  exile  from 
a  higher  diviner  sphere,  to  which  he  may  hope 
to  return  only  after  long  purgatorial  atonement 
in  earthly  incarnations — all  this  has  been  even 
more  magnificently  elaborated  in  Platonic  dia- 
logues like  the  Phaedrus  and  the  Phaedo;  but 
Plato  himself  may  well  owe  much  of  his  loftiest 
inspiration  to  this  Sicilian  seer. 


Hexameter  and  the  Philosophers.  193 

The  theory  of  the  four  elements  is  clearly  stated 
iu  a  three-line  fragment  of  the  same  l*reludc : — 

"Hearken  and  learn,  that  four,  at  the  first,  are  the  aourccs 
of  all  things : 
Fire,  and  water,  and  earth,  and  lofty  ether  unbounded. 
Thence  springs  all  that  is,  that  shall  be,  or  hath  been 
aforetime." 

Empedocles  seems  to  have  rivalled  Lucretius 
himself  in  the  picturesque  vividness  of  his  similes. 
Here,  for  instance,  is  an  attempt  to  illustrate  how 
the  manifold  forms  of  the  visible  world  might 
well  arise  from  the  mingling  of  these  few 
elements. 

"Just  as   men   who   the   painter's   craft   have    thoroughly 

mastered 
Fashion  in  many  a  tint  their  picture,  on  offering  sacred; 
When  they  have  talien  in  hand  their   paints  of  various 

colours, 
Mingling  skilfully  more  of  the  one  and  less  of  another, 
Out  of  these  they  render  the  figures  like  unto  all  things ; 
Trees  they  cause  to  appear,  and  the  semblance  of  men  and 

of  women. 
Beasts  of  the  field,  and  birds,  and  fish   that  inhabit  the 

waters. 
Even  the  gods  whose  honours  arc  greatest,  whose  life  is 

unending  : 

0 


194      The  Successors  of  Homer. 

— Be  not  deceived,  for  such,  and  nowise  other,  the 
fountain 

Whence  all  mortals  spring,  whatever  their  races  un- 
numbered." 

Incidentally  we  see  clearly,  that,  wliile  the 
painter's  art  has  made  many  a  stride  from 
Homer's  time  to  Empedocles'  day,  yet  ''  Art  is 
still  religion  ; "  the  masterpiece  is  (as  a  matter 
of  course)  an  anathema,  an  altar-piece. 

Among  the  other  fragments  of  the  Proem  is 
the  singular  invocation  of  the  Muse,  which  is 
most  difficult  to  turn  into  English  verse,  as  it 
demands  absolute  faithfulness  in  rendering.  It 
may  be  confessed,  too,  that  the  poetic  quality 
is  rather  disappointing.  Unlike  most  transcen- 
dental philosophers,  Empedocles  insists  that 
men — at  least,  other  men,  if  not  himself — must 
rely  simply  and  solely  on  the  evidence  of  their 
senses  concerning  all  material  things.  Moreover, 
despite  his  hatred  of  Strife,  he  has  evidently  just 
indulged  in  rather  strong  polemic,  probably 
against  those  who  profess  to  teach  more  than 
man  may  know  ;  for  the  invocation  begins 
thus : — 


Hexameter  and  the  Philosophers.  195 

"  Only  do  ye,  oh  gods,  remove  from  my  tongue  their  mad- 
ness; 

Make  ye  to  flow  from  a  mouth  that  is  holy  a  fountain 
unsullied. 

Thou,  oh  white-armed  Virgin,  the  Muse  who  remembcrest 
all  things, 

Whatsoe'er  it  is  lawful  to  utter  to  men  that  are  mortal 

Bring  me,  from  Piety  driving  a  chariot  easily-guided." 

It  is  clear,  from  many  such  passages,  that 
Empedocles  claimed  for  himself  not  merely  a 
poetic  inspiration,  but  an  absolutely  superhuman 
nature.  It  is  not  easy  to  find  anywhere  a  more 
magnificent  and  sublime  egotism  than  his.  The 
most  famous  passage  of  this  character  is  not  from 
his  gTeat  work  on  Nature  (or  Creation),  but  is 
found  in  the  "  Katharmoi "  (Poems  of  Purifica- 
tion) : — 

"  Oh,  my  friends,  whoso  in  Acragas'  beautiful  city  \/ 

Have    your  dwelling  aloft,  whose  hearts  are  set   upon 

virtue. 
Reverent  harbours  of  guests,  who  have  no  share  in  dis- 
honour, 
Greeting !     But  I  as  a  god  divine,  no  longer  a  mortal. 
Dwell  with  you,  by  all  in  reverence  held,  as  is  fitting. 
Girt  with  fillets  about,  and  crowned  with  wreaths  of  re- 
joicing. 


196      The  Successors  of  Homer. 

Whatsoever  the  folk  whose  iDrosperous  cities  I  enter, 
There  I  of  women  and  men  am  revered.    By  thousands 

they  follov,', 
Questioning  where  they  may  seek  for  the  j^ath  that  leadeth 

to  profit. 
These  are  in  need  of  prophetic  words ;  and  others,  in  illness, 
Since  they  have  long  been  racked  with  the  grievous  pangs 

of  diseases, 
Crave  that  1  utter  the  charm  whose  power  is  sovran  in  all 

things. 
— Yet,  pray,  why  lay  stress  upon  this,  as  were  it  a  marvel 
If  I    surpass    mankind,    who    are    mortal    and    utterly 

wretched  ?  " 

The  scientific  discoveries  of  Empedocles  seem 
really  to  have  been,  like  those  of  Paracelsus, 
much  in  advance  of  his  age.  As  for  his  attempt 
to  retrace  the  processes  of  creation,  much  in  it, 
of  course,  seems  to  us  crude  and  even  cliildish. 
There  are  indications,  however,  that  he  saw  more 
clearly  than  his  lloman  pupil  the  great  distinction 
between  matter  and  force.  He  would,  perhaps, 
hardly  have  thought  of  sound,  and  heat  or  cold, 
as  delicate  sulstanccs  piercing  through  the  pores 
of  coarser  matter — a  belief  Lucretius  teaches  and 
adorns  with  most  exquisite  imagery !  Empe- 
docles   certainly   did    assert,   however,   that   all 


Hexameter  and  tlie  Pliilosopliers.  197 

bodies  actually  give  off  "  films,"  or  thin  images 
of  themselves,  which,  striking  the  human  eye, 
produce  the  effect  of  sight.  Still,  many  such 
apparently  crude  statements  may  have  been 
largely  dictated  by  the  tyranny  of  poetic  diction, 
and  the  lack,  as  yet,  of  any  scientific  terminology. 
The  preservation  of  so  considerable  a  mass  of 
verse  from  Empedocles — and  from  him  only — 
among  all  the  early  philosophers,  is  doubtless  a 
tribute,  even  if  only  a  half-conscious  one,  to  his 
high  poetic  quality.  That  alone,  or  at  least 
chiefly,  not  his  philosophic  system,  concerns  us 
here,  as  has  already  been  remarked.  This  body 
of  verse  would,  however,  make  an  excellent 
subject  for  an  English  monograph  by  a  classical 
scholar  with  scientific  interests. 


198      The  Successors  of  Homer 


EPILOGUE. 

The  preceding  chapters  have  measurably  covered 
that  mass  of  poetry  which  may  properly  be 
described  as  "Homeric"  in  dialect,  metre,  and, 
perhaps,  in  general  spirit,  and  which  was  created 
in  the  centuries  from  the  completion  of  the 
Odyssey  down  to  the  middle  of  the  Attic  period — 
let  us  say  from  800  to  400  B.C.  Many  other 
poems  are  mentioned,  or  even  quoted,  in  later 
authors,  which  may  have  deserved  inclusion  here ; 
but  they  are  of  uncertain  date  and  unknown 
character,  surviving  only  in  the  scantiest  frag- 
ments. It  has  not  been  thought  best  to  mention 
them  at  all  in  so  general  a  view. 

The  history  of  the  hexameter  by  no  means 
ends  at  this  point.  The  important  revival  of 
archaic  epic  in  Alexandria,  the  bucolic  school  of 


Epilogue.  199 

Theocritus,  and,  in  general,  the  later  developments, 
we  may,  perhaps,  hope  to  discuss  hereafter.  Its 
prevailing  use  in  epitaphs  shows  that  the  hexa- 
meter was  always  familiar  and  beloved,  as  might 
be  expected  among  a  people  for  whom  Homer 
so  long  remained  almost  a  Bible.  Many 
Athenians,  for  instance,  knew  the  whole  Iliad 
and  Odyssey  by  heart,  and  the  Platonic  Socrates 
employs  a  Homeric  phrase  or  an  archaic  word, 
such  as  "the  forceless  heads  of  the  dead,"  for 
local  colour,  as  a  modern  English  essayist  uses 
"  fardels,"  or  "  still- vext  Bermoothes." 

The  body  of  post-Homeric  verse  described  in 
the  present  volume  never  attained  the  same 
popularity;  nor  is  the  chief  cause  far  to  seek. 
The  Iliad  and  Odyssey  present  on  the  whole  a 
picture  almost  as  remote  from  historic  Hellas  as 
it  is  from  us.  There  may  or  may  not  have  been 
in  earlier  ages  such  figures  as  Achilles  and 
Hector,  Helen  and  Xausicaa;  but  at  any  rate 
their  chariots  and  their  chivalry  were  as  un- 
related to  the  actual  daily  experience  of  Lysias 
and  Isocrates  as  to  that  of  Burke  and  Pitt. 
Hence   their   supreme  charm.     They  make,  and 


200      The  Successors  of  Homer. 

they  have  always  made,  a  resistless  appeal  to 
the  imagination. 

"  Ewig  jung  allein  ist  Phantasie." 

Homer,  too,  sang,  apparently,  for  the  pure  de- 
light of  singing.  Any  ethical  impulse  or  meaning 
is  forgotten,  or  merged,  in  the  delineation  of  truly 
beautiful  and  heroic  figures  or  scenes.  True  art 
may  unconsciously  teach  as  much  as  you  please, 
but  it  must  not  consciously  preach ! 

The  mass  of  poetry  here  treated  is,  on  the 
contrary,  pliilosophic,  didactic,  self-conscious,  and, 
in  the  intention  at  least,  largely  realistic.  Even 
the  Prometheus  Firebearer  of  Hesiod  was  a  part 
of  the  regular  Attic  belief  and  cult.  The  maxims 
of  the  Works  and  Days  were  fitted  for  the 
practical  guidance  of  the  peasant  at  his  plough, 
and  the  trader  on  the  sea.  The  Hymns  were 
doubtless  in  actual  use,  at  least  locally,  in  oft- 
recurring  rituals  and  at  stated  festival-times. 
Even  in  discussing  the  very  early  Delian  hymn, 
we  had  occasion  to  remark  upon  the  local  and 
personal,  even  egotistical,  tone  which  makes  it 
distinctly  un-Homeric.   .  In  some  cases  the  very 


Epilogue.  201 

text  of  these  works  lias  probably  suffered  severely 
because  of  this  very  nearness  to  contemporary 
life.  The  Iliad  we  read,  doubtless,  essentially 
as  Pisistratus  read  it.  It  was  already  an  heir- 
loom from  an  earlier  Hellas,  not  to  be  rudely 
touched  or  added  to  by  alien  hands.  But  into 
the  Works  and  Days,  as  into  the  corpus  of 
Theognis'  didactic  poetry,  almost  any  common- 
place or  maxim  could  be  introduced. 

Nevertheless,  it  is  believed  the  subject-matter 
of  this-  little  volume  has  a  unity,  an  interest, 
and,  in  particular,  a  close  dependence  on  the 
masterpieces  of  Ionic  epic,  justifying  its  treat- 
ment under  the  title  here  chosen.  It  is  less 
alive,  less  essential  to  the  comprehension  of  the 
age  in  which  it  arose,  than  the  Greek  lyric  of 
the  same  centuries.  The  tantalizing  and,  on  the 
whole,  scanty  remains  of  that  lyric,  from  Callinus 
to  Simonides,  would  require  at  least  another 
volume  like  the  present  one. 

FINIS. 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  UBRARY 


